University festival of design, last night I went to the open evening and I wanted to share my experience!
I arrived a little late to a packed lecture theatre with a still atmosphere as the first keynote speaker was introduced. He was a design engineer from mobile phone manufacturer, a 30 something who had been at the company since his first job as a tester, which he got whilst studying. During the following hour the audience were subjected to the most dry, boring and drab journey of this uninspiring, un-engaging individual. I often refrain from criticising others, especially when they are qualified individuals, respected within their profession.

This chap had all the qualifications, had some great experiences over his career and holds an influential role, but I have to tell you this was the worst presentation I have endured in my entire life. What was the point to the keynote… Your guess is as good as mine, I learn’t some trivial information about his early years, about where his office was, how many cars he has and all of his qualifications. Maybe I had missed the point, but speaking to everyone after it was a widely shared opinion that is was truly terrible. Had it not been for the second keynote speaker who totally got it I would have been asking for my time back! He showed passion, energy, told an engaging story and awakened an audience who had been left in a coma from the first guy.

This made me realise that despite good qualifications, experiences… and before you are fighting this mans battle he said he was an accomplished presenter around the world to teams and schools, this was a ‘keynote’ for this there are no excuses. He was unable to read or engage the audience, prepare a good presentation and deliver with any zest what so ever. To top it off, the most awful PowerPoint slides made this a memorable event for all the wrong reasons.  This becomes even funnier as the event was about celebrating design innovation! Shocking.

So, I was hoping that the student’s work would make up for this… I was drawn to the sustainable graphics and packaging course grads, in a small room was a dozen or so people from another Uni, and a mix of standards. Some good concepts and ideas with poor execution, and vice-versa.

Now sat in the gardens waiting before my next meeting I remember two individuals; One, a young chap who’s work was already at a commercial level, he talked with a clear drive and an understanding of the subject. I have no doubt he will find work and will be an asset to whom he joins. The other was a mature student, an ex designer in an advertising agency who had created an interesting concept, a working retreat for designers to escape. An environment to learn, reflect and design in a harmonious way. Aptly named ‘The tree house’. I would love to see this concept become a reality, so I can take my team for some ‘time out’ whilst still producing project work. I am compelled to help connect her to a few contacts that I think can help her pull this off.

It’s a great idea, and I am sure many design teams would love to spend a day or two to re ignite their passion for their craft, which is often lost in the hubbub of the working environment. The 4 hour event soon flew by and had filled me with excitement, knowing there is good talent coming through. With the lasting bonus, experiencing how not to present! Something I hope I will never be responsible for inflicting to an audience in the future! Sorry Mobile phone man, but please, please,  ’step it up’ or stop presenting!

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There aren’t many holidays that are left untouched by the world of social media, and Valentine’s Day is no exception.

This year, businesses are going all out to make a song and dance of the season, some quite literally. Even the world of confectionary has listened to consumer trends and included "Tweet me" as a new message on the American version of Loveheart sweets, Sweethearts

Amongst the many distinctly average attempts to create innovative ways of taking advantage of the day, I found a few gems:

The American greetings card company, amgreetings, has set up a daily Twitter contest in the run up to Valentine’s day, for its’ followers to produce the best romantically themed post. The winners are announced daily and have been winning up to $350 each. A costly use of the ‘free’ marketing tool, but they have certainly boosted their customer interactions.

Hallmark has created a line of Augmented Reality (AM) greetings cards. These are like regular paper cards, but when the image on the front of the card is held up to a webcam on a page on the Hallmark website it becomes a mini 3D animated world with sound and a fully rotatable stage. A bit of a gimmick? Perhaps. But a unique way to tell that special someone how you feel. See it in action here.

And of course, the iPhone has produced an impressive selection of the latest Valentine’s apps. The best of the bunch include virtual kisses that take an imprint of your lips and send it on, voice personalised e-greetings cards and even a two-person fingerprinting tool that can ‘accurately’ analyse the feelings between you and your loved one.

Who said romance was dead?

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When we began 2009 we were prepared for a tough year, as a management team we sat down for two days to prepare our strategic direction and survival plan. We have taken the time every month to monitor and review performance and client feedback and success.
I am delighted to end the year feeling exhausted for all the right reasons. As a team we have grown, as a company had our most successful to date in the last 10 years and as a person I have begun to feel free again. Running your own business is a roller coaster of emotions and challenges so it is critical to maintain a self belief so strong it can withstand any cross fire.

Our talented team of 10 superstars has made sure we retained our clients whilst acquiring new ones that fit our strategic model. We’ve branded and launched 16 companies, re-branded 8 businesses, built 35 websites, produced 8 promotional videos including filming across Europe, we have continued to be the strategic marketing department and partner for 6 growing businesses, run a brilliant public vintage fayre, worked over 16,000 hours, drunk over 5,900 mugs of coffee & green tea, sent over 16,200 emails (not campaigns just day-to-day messages) ran 29 workshops for about 150 people, presented to more than 100 young entrepreneurs, shot over 13,000 photographs, and spent more than 2,000 hours on Facebook! And had a lot of fun doing it all!

We do what we do because we love it and we’re damn good at it! We like to be challenged and valued. We get stuck in and deliver results; we like freedom and learning and strive to be the best in our world.

But do you know what made my year? Reading this…

“I would just like to thank you and your whole team for the level of service, commitment, attention to detail and timely actions that you have all taken to give ooops.net limited that paradigm shift required of a business entering its eighth year of trading. As you know we are a five strong team at this moment in time and with your continued help I am sure within the year we will be an eight strong team! I am impressed with RT Media’s integrity; each and every member of your team are free to say what they think, to express themselves with a zealous passion for putting us first. This ensures we know we are getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth – important to winning! You are like an honest “coach” and “mentor” to us. I am impressed with RT Media’s creativity, I know it is your pre-requisite but there are a great many of your competitors out there that are not! I am impressed with RT Media’s strategic vision, able to see beyond the horizon, helping us let go of the shore! Ensuring we don’t waste money now, saving for the opportunities that will give the greatest return on investment in future. An example of this is our stopping of our Press advertising and moving into Social Media that is FREE! All in all – I’m as chuffed as nuts with you all!”
Paul Booker – Founder of ooops.net limited

Well done to the whole team for a year to remember. I am looking forward to making 2010 even better.

Thanks to all who take the time to think of us, work with us and recommend us.
Ross.
Founder & Creative Director.

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Hi

This is Alex, from the WebDev lair, I have an update for everybody.

Our previous and current projects give us ideas how to upgrade and modify our CMS.  So what did we do? We revised the whole code, and made necessary tweaks, we fine tuned databases and slightly changed the interfaces. Thus, our clients are able to run multi-language versions of websites.  Supported modules are: News, Addresses, Articles, Testimonials and of course: WebPages – all of what you need

If you have ever dreamed of reaching your customers around the world, even people speaking different languages – now you can do it. Armed with our CMS!

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To-do lists are an essential daily tool!

Not only do they organise our day, but they cross over and affect other people’s tasks as we interact and help each other out. They may not bring joy to those who are constantly nagged by electronic reminders, but they do serve the purpose.

Once a goal or task becomes part of a to-do list, it can feel more concrete/critical/real/important – take your pick. It can be invaluable to break down seemingly insurmountable undertakings, into bite-sized chunks of effort. For instance, my little daily to-do list often blossoms into the semblance of a fully fledged project and with the combined effort of the RT Team becomes reality!

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A friend sent me a link to this and it really resonated. Love it. With the desire to do better, to live better and succeed, anything is possible.

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Many agencies use other brands to help them grow, nothing wrong in that? Name-dropping about their client list to make them feel good, to help them win business, to help position the quality of their work. You will see columns of client names or dozens of stories about a little shop they designed a poster for. But how do you really know if what they did made a difference?

And does it really matter?

If we helped one client grow their brand from a few hundred thousand turn over to a few million, or one clients product from selling a few thousand to selling 338 thousand in 6 months would this mean anything to you and your business?

It’s the results we achieve together in a client partner relationship that counts. Not quick one off project wins that motivate us. We have worked hard to maintain a consistent promise of delivery and quality over the last 9 great years, proven by the fact that even the big brands keep coming back for more.

Of course over our years we have worked with all sorts of big brand names from Kodak, Peugeot, Beales and the VT Group, and at all sorts of levels. What I am proud to tell you is that our very close relationship with Sony over the last 7 years just keeps on growing. So we must be doing something right.

For Sony we have completed over 100 successful projects every year for the last 3 years running and 2009 is already set to dwarf that of previous years. Continuing to manage their e-communications across Europe is just one of these projects. Going to show’s that even the small rural agencies can win the fight with the London agency big boys.

With our packaging design portfolio exploding and our designs getting on the supermarket shelves we are very excited to be expanding our food clients’ businesses.

If you fancy speaking to me about how we can help your brand grow then please send me an email at ross@rtmedia.com as we have just 7 client spaces left for this year.

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It’s what you won’t find in ávitāe that really matters from avitae on Vimeo.

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Have you become addicted to email, does it manage your time in the office?

Some organisations have banned email internally to encourage better communication between their people.

True, bad things can happen because of email, but good things also happen because of email, what’s in no doubt in the 21st century is that just about everything happens by email. But should it? There are still many instances when it’s better to telephone, fax, text or even meet!

It is doubtful that any email ever added to a relationship, but I bet it’s spoiled a few! Think before you click!

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Hi… Jamie here!

Today i was asked to blog. So here you are, me blogging! I’m not sure how these things works, i like to invent my own buzz words, so here we go.

Sit back, put your good slippers on, fetch your smoking jacket, warm the teapot, and mine’s an Earl Grey.

My Brain Purge (©) (I will obviously be copyrighting all of my esoteric buzz words)
<RANT>
- Adobe… where in the name of slicing hell, is the slice palette in CS3?
- Creative Review should be banned from students!
- Meetings to organise meetings are anti-productive
- Soul Glo is not for jerry curls
- There is still time for a good Olympic logo to be designed
- Mentioning no names (ahem Micr—ft), what in the name of population control are you trying to do with the Office 2007 html rendering engine?!?!
</RANT>

Ok, as I don’t want you all to have too much to think about from my first RT Media Brain Purge (©), and my cup is dry, I will be off.

Thanks for consuming, see you in the kitchen next to the kettle next time.

J

ps. my management thought – when you die, the plates in the kitchen will still be dirty

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Risk is a funny thing…it scares some and excites many, but as this poem sets out: that’s life!

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool

To weep is to risk being called sentimental

To reach out to another is to risk involvement

To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self

To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd is to risk being called naïve

To love is to risk not being loved in return

To live is to risk dying

To hope is to risk despair

To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken, because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing and becomes nothing

He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love

Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom

Only the person who risks is truly free

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I was sent this image from one of our clients who served in Afghanistan. It was outside the base camp shower. It struck a chord with me about targeting your message to your audience. How do we get the desired action; incentives, offers and testimonials are all used but do we write them for us to feel good or for those who will actually read them.

I love this sign and thought it got straight to the point and no doubt got remarked about too. Hey, it ended up here on my blog! Make sure you communicate for the reader and not for your own board members.

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I came across this You Tube movie and I have to share this with you as it tickled me and still does every time I watch it!

Humor to sell movie

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