http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/ work inspired en-us Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:37:15 EST Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:37:15 EST http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html Movable Type Pro 4.33-en 60 http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2010/03/the_box_that_saved_the_world.html d For me, one of the interesting things about design has always been how changing seemingly small items can have amazingly large results.And I'm not talking about a 24% rise in sales because someone decided to make the logo bigger.... Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:57:40 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2010:/aquentblog//11.2307 Tim Donnelly Design Ecology Ethics Practice: Graphic Design http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2010/02/donations_add_up_despite_little_trust_in_texting_for_relief.html When it comes to Texting for Relief, the incredible figures the Red Cross is posting for its Haiti relief effort show that a lot of people are on board with this simple, easy-to-do donation process.But at the same time, many... Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:44:50 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2010:/aquentblog//11.2282 Julia Thahar Current Affairs Ethics Trends http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2009/10/attraction_to_do_good_brands_is_escalating.html Would you change your shopping habits to make the world a better place? According to new findings from Edelman Worldwide's "goodpurpose Consumer Study" (as reported in Mediapost.com), of the 6,000 people surveyed in 10 countries, "61% say they have purchased... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:45:41 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2009:/aquentblog//11.2210 Julia Thahar Ethics Market Research Marketing Practice: Marketing Sales http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2009/09/better_world_by_design.html You know, it seems like we're seeing more and more design-related conferences like the "A Better World by Design" one being held in Providence, Rhode Island this weekend.Here's the pitch from their site: "The conference will focus heavily on design,... Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:31:22 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2009:/aquentblog//11.2194 Tim Donnelly Career Design Ecology Ethics Events Networking Practice: Graphic Design Tim's A Day in the Life Blog Trends http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2009/09/a_method_to_their_method.html Adam Lowry, co-founder of Method, has been posting over at the eco blog Treehugger about design and its implications of where the world is heading.In his latest entry he posits, "Design has never been just the domain of the creative.... Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:50:37 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2009:/aquentblog//11.2173 Tim Donnelly Design Ecology Ethics Practice: Graphic Design Tim's A Day in the Life Blog http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2009/01/the_cult_of_transparency.html A random Google search brought me to this Wired article, "The See-Through CEO," from March 2007 (remember 2007?). Though it seems kind of old-hat now, the thrust of the article (is it strange to use "thrust" metaphorically in a corporate... Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:43:42 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2009:/thetalentblog//5.1882 Matthew Grant Aquent Careering Ethics New vs Old Media Public Relations http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2008/11/pre-holiday_thought-provoking_humor.html It's always dangerous to advertise something as "humorous" when it's quite possible that no one finds it funny. Here goes anyway. Two years ago, there was a modicum of hub-bub about the "no A-hole rule" and a lot of discussion... Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:44:08 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2008:/thetalentblog//5.1760 Matthew Grant Careering Ethics Public Relations http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2008/11/copyright_or_copyfight.html Cory Doctorow recently published an essay, "Why I Copyfight." His basic point is that sharing knowledge, stories, music, etc. is an essential part of human culture (in this, his arguments echo those of Jonathan Lethem), but that internet technology has... Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:07:12 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2008:/thetalentblog//5.1748 Matthew Grant Content and Content Management Copywriting Creativity Ethics History http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2008/10/defining_the_good_agency.html T'other day Amber over at Altitude wrote a post called, "5 Things Good Agencies Do (And one they don't)." She is talking here about any kind of agency - PR, Web, Marketing, etc. - but it struck me that the... Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:46:04 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2008:/thetalentblog//5.1706 Matthew Grant Agencies Design Management Ethics Social Media http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2008/09/do_something_with_your_life.html About twenty years ago, after I had stopped out of grad school and quit my job at SuperShuttle and was so broke that I made all my family members collages as Christmas presents, my father sat me down for a fireside chat. The gist was: Dude, you got to get it together, figure out what you want to do with you life, and do it. As he put it, semi-incredulously, "You don't seem to do anything." Was I a lost soul at that point? Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:42:05 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2008:/thetalentblog//5.1602 Matthew Grant Careering Ethics History http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2008/08/this_statement_is_a_lie.html Talking with a friend yesterday, he noted that my wife was a writer and then asked if I was a writer as well. I said I was, but explained I was in marketing. "So, you write lies," he said with... Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:38:15 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2008:/thetalentblog//5.363 Matthew Grant Branding Ethics History Marketing http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2008/08/youve_got_the_power.html I got a PhD in German Studies which means, among other things, that I had to make a living as a corporate trainer, writer, and more recently, marketer. It also means that I spent a lot of time studying fascism,... Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:39:46 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2008:/thetalentblog//5.359 Matthew Grant About Content and Content Management Ethics History New vs Old Media Social Networking http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2008/08/betrayal_of_everything_we_stan.html We're in the process of rethinking our on-line presence/strategy and redesigning our website. We've already changed the homepage fairly drastically and continue to experiment with it, even as we reconsider our whole approach. As part of the experimentation, I started... Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:09:49 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2008:/thetalentblog//5.357 Matthew Grant Aquent Careering Design Design Management Ethics New vs Old Media Social Networking Trends http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2008/07/special_pleading_i_want_you_to.html Though I can spin things and beat around the bush with the best of them, I tend to prefer "straight talk" (sometimes called "honesty" or "frankness" or "no BS"). For example, while working recently on a survey of our clients,... Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:31:41 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2008:/thetalentblog//5.345 Matthew Grant Aquent Blogging Branding Ethics Marketing Public Relations http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2008/02/friday_fun_videos_that_make_fu.html The other day, a colleague turned me on to this video: It was created by the very talented illustrator, Kyle T. Webster, and somehow I missed it when it was posted on about a million blogs and other sites. Look,... Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:41:33 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2008:/thetalentblog//5.286 Matthew Grant Careering Creativity Ethics Viral Marketing http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/12/how_do_professionals_know_how.html Many moons ago, a friend of mine sent me a book entitled, Disciplined Minds, the subtitle of which reads, "A critical look at salaried professionals and the soul-battering system that shapes their lives." I actually read the book straightaway, but... Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:47:01 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.273 Matthew Grant Careering Ethics History Talent http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/10/the_greening_of_graphic_design.html As everyone knows, "Green" is in. Even car manufacturers and oil companies are green! If you are a graphic designer and want to get greener, you may be interested in this blog: 101 Things Designers Can Do to Save the... Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:31:24 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.257 Matthew Grant Creativity Design Ethics New vs Old Media Trends http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/05/fabulous_design_and_fabricated.html Pete Mortensen, on the Cult of Mac section of Wired's blog, wrote a head-shaking post describing how an academic journal was beaten down by the secrecy surrounding Apple's design group and their ultra-esoteric process for creating great products. Of course,... Sat, 19 May 2007 13:59:47 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.193 Matthew Grant Design Ethics Trends http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/05/related_search_terms.html So I've started adding photographs to my blog, as you may or may not have noticed. The impetus was Mack Collier's post entitled "Your Company Blog Sucks, Now What?" in which he suggests adding images to make one's post... Wed, 09 May 2007 19:25:52 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.187 Matthew Grant Blogging Ethics Trends http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/05/are_resumes_bogus_in_principle.html The recent story concerning former MIT Dean of Admissions, Marilee Jones, who was asked to resign after 28 years because she had lied about (misrepresented might be more generous, if less accurate) her educational background, got me thinking about... Thu, 03 May 2007 18:05:08 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.184 Matthew Grant Careering Ethics Resumes http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/03/is_marketing_a_new_religion.html I'll admit it. Sometimes I find Seth Godin kind of preachy. Indeed it seems that, for him, marketing is preaching, or "evangelizing," as it's more commonly called in the church of the customer. "It's about spreading ideas that you believe... Sat, 31 Mar 2007 11:53:37 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.164 Matthew Grant Advertising Blogging Ethics http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/03/wars_of_words.html "Marketing isn't about us VS them - it is about us AND them. It is not something you do TO a person, but rather something you do FOR them," writes Greg Verdino in a recent post on the bellicose rhetoric... Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:20:41 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.159 Matthew Grant Copywriting Ethics Marketing http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/02/of_guerrilla_marketing_ethics.html News travels fast these days, so I don't need to tell anyone that, right here in Boston, a guerrilla marketing stunt mobilized the police force and shut down significant parts of the city for several hours. If you don't know... Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:28:51 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.137 Matthew Grant Ethics Trends Viral Marketing http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/01/liftout_recruiting_and_freelan.html Repeat after me: I am my network. When a company recruits an entire team or group from another company, it's called a "lift-out," according to this article from Business Week. (Of course, sometimes its referred to as "employee raiding," and... Sat, 20 Jan 2007 13:46:39 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.130 Matthew Grant Careering Ethics Trends http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/2007/01/marketing_ethics_and_new_years.html A colleague of mine once opined that it was for the best that she was not blogging for Aquent because she had very strong opinions about the ethics of marketing. For example, she didn't think it ethical to market to... Tue, 02 Jan 2007 21:02:14 EST tag:blogs.aquent.com,2007:/thetalentblog//5.122 Matthew Grant Ethics