The other day Ben and I were watching the episode of the Tudors in which England succumbs to the so called “sweating sickness.” Now of course, this is a semi-fictional show but it reminded us of the fear and hype around H1N1 especially here in Toronto. This morning I’m hearing of hundreds of people lining up to get the vaccine at Metro Hall in what seems like a mass panic to get vaccinated. While I myself hope at some point to get the vaccine, I’m surprised that no one is talking about anything other than chemical vaccines and purelle. What about good old fashioned eating well and exercise? Maybe try getting more sleep? Take your vitamins, avoid large crowds and binge drinking. I am no doctor but this seems like common sense to me. There are so many ways to boost your immunity and take care of your health and it would be helpful to remind people of this in the wake of waiting for the vaccine.

In the episode of the Tudors,  Henry VIII has an intense discussion with his doctor; Henry, certain that magical “infusions” will prevent him from getting the sickness is humbly contradicted by his doctor who says in so many words that “eating apples and exercise” seems to be what is curing people. It was a funny poke at the ignorance around viruses and disease in the 15th and 16th centuries. And yet even though we know so much more now, we seem to only be talking about getting the beaten up virus into our bodies as the only means of prevention.

Take care of yourselves. Eat green leafy veggies. Eat immune boosting fruits. Take a plant based organic vitamin. Go for a walk outside. Do some yoga at home if you don’t want to go to a class full of people. Take echinacea. Don’t drink too much. Let’s not be like Henry and think that only the potion is the cure. It’s so very medieval.

When Ben and I were first dating I would sometimes try to find something wrong with him. He would in those instances, turn to me and ask if I was just trying to make drama and find some reason to not be happy. And then I would admit he was right (which he would then promptly reply with “well, I’m always right.”) And when I wasn’t trying to create unnecessary drama, we would often arrive at some intense moment and look at each other in awe, wondering how this perfect union could have happened. And then Ben would say “because we deserve it.” And then I would think he was right again. Because maybe after all the bad relationships and the countless times I’ve felt trodden on, the grueling childhood and the constant search for an answer, I had finally found it.

But happiness is a complex subject. I’ve already written so much today that I’m currently wondering why I even wanted to broach the subject. I guess I just feel happy and I want to savour the moment. Because this feeling seems to come and then it goes again. When this time arrives of getting exactly what I dreamed of, it seems to evaporate almost instantly, replaced by new dreams and new wants. But I suppose this is what life is… a constant pursuit of happiness. I have turned to my writing, my love, my friends, my design, and it seems that as a result the elusive butterfly has landed. But who knows how long she will stay there.

This is not the version I read, this one is beautifully typeset.

A few weeks ago, my Parisian friend Melanie came to stay with me for her first ever trip to North America. She had planned a trip down to New York City and the night before she left, while doing the dishes, we joked that in order for me to write my first novel, it was imperative that I stay in my apartment. That is, to not move in with my boyfriend, and to keep my own room. I had agreed, putting a plate away and looking around my cosy flat, thinking “yes, this will be the place.” By the time Melanie came back to Toronto five days later I had signed a one year lease with Ben for a gorgeous apartment just west of Little Italy.

I didn’t question my judgment. It was a natural decision with everything aligning so perfectly it seemed ludicrous to say “no, love of my life, I can’t move in with you, I must write a novel first.” But it did prompt me to pick out of my bookshelves, a tiny used copy of Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” to find out what kind of mistake I might have made. I have no idea when I bought this book, or even if I did, but I do know that it had been sitting there unread for several years. And I know why. The typesetting is atrocious, and I couldn’t bring myself to read it. But this time around I forced my way through the tight leading and was glad I did.

What I first learned is that I haven’t made a mistake. In fact, I will have my own room, a library and a writing desk and Ben will have his own too. One down. Next was the “500 a year” that had been bestowed on Ms. Woolfe by her dead great-aunt. I have had no such luck in my life. I have been working girl since the age of thirteen, but I was curious to know what the minimum amount of money a writer (or artist or musician) would need in order to:

…possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.

In 1929, when the book was first published, she says a woman would need five hundred pounds a year. That this money would give her the freedom and independence to write.  But what would five hundred pounds a year in 1929 be in the year 2009 with inflation and changes in cost of living? Enter Google Search Results: Inflation Calculator. First I converted 500 pounds to Canadian dollars using my iGoogle widget. Answer:

$864.67 (So Ms. Woolf would have needed to write $865 CAD a year if she had been living in Canada)

Enter $864.67 into the nifty inflation calculator , hit calculate. Answer:

Being a David Sedaris fan, I had heard about This American Life; but I had never listened to it. This weekend a friend sent me an episode called “Fall Guy” and I was immediatly hooked. This morning, Wade sent me this series of videos by Ira Glass, the radio host of This American Life. I was so inspired by his words, I had to share. Enjoy!

Why I always ending up loving Swedish bands I will never know. Check out my new favourite band. I can’t get enough of them. Thanks to Notzl for tunes. I’m adding this to the likes of The Cardigans and Lykke Li; only one listen and I was hooked for life.

I was doing a bit of research for a short story and remembered this photographer from a lecture I went to years ago. I still can’t get enough of the power in each of his photographs and how he was able to immerse himself so deeply into a culture to earn their trust. Here is a man who was truly passionate and devoted to his work. We can only aspire to be the same. Check out his blog here

I’ve taken a bit of a break from this blog. Summer arrived, I started writing my short stories more seriously, vacations happened and the blog fell off the priority list. But I’ve missed writing here basically because it’s quick way of collecting the things out there that are so beautiful and fascinating to me. It’s a bit like writing a journal, which I have kept on and off since I was a teenager. Going back to those journals is a source of endless entertainment for me. Partially because my memory is so terrible, I use it as a means of remembering how foolish I once was, and to realize that yet again, I’m probably being foolish in some way.

Is quitting your job in the middle of a recession to go freelance foolish? I’m not sure yet. My two weeks is not up. But I don’t think following your dreams is foolish. And my dream since I can remember has been to write fiction. I have been far too pragmatic about life so far – my telltale contradiction. An artist who also worries too much about not having any money. Maybe it was growing up with no money that made me so fervent about finding a secure job. “I can always be an artist on the side.” I would convince myself of this time and again.

Even now, I often wake up at 5:30 in the morning and after about 20 minutes of yoga stretches and a nice cup of coffee, I write. I’m not sure if it’s any good yet. Probably not. But I’m trying to write more and more and more. But every time 8am rolls around, I need to close the computer, head to the bathroom and get ready for my 9-6 job at an advertising agency.

There’s nothing wrong with this, except that I cannot focus on my stories because for the remainder of my 9-10 hour day is spent worrying about information architecture, usability, online media, social media, iphone applications and office politics. What’s a girl to do?

Well, I am attempting to minimize the amount of time I spend on those things. It’s not that I don’t like them. I do, and I have a tonne of experience doing them. But in order to do other things in our short lives we have to make sacrifices, take risks, and try new things. So I quit my job and figured out a more part-time solution. I can still work in this fascinating space of interactive design and advertising, but I can also find time to finally finish off my short story collection, and hopefully one day finish that damn novel.

Fingers crossed.

I’m fascinated by the effort and beautiful design that goes into otherwise basic and utilitarian things. Check out this manual for a typewriter… every page is like a gorgeous piece of art. So much work was put into this. I’ve always maintained that even some of the smallest projects can be amazing, and probably even more so because the designer is given way more autonomy. We can only hope for projects like this and visionary, trusting clients. Found on Swiss Miss

I wish there was a better way to share this song. It comes on my itunes at work quite often because I haven’t yet got around to putting more music on my computer. Every time I hear it… I think damn, this is truly a song of our times. Then I just feel guilty to be in advertising:

Shout out out out : Forever Indebted:

Big debts.
You know they got me,
More than I got out
And every month I think I’ve finally hit the bottom
But they keep growing
And fucking growing
And every month I get in deeper
With my knowing.
Well, God damn!
How did this happen?
It’s not like I spend all my time spending, spending.
Well, God damn!
If I could get out,
Somehow I know I’d just go right back in.

All my friends
They’re in the same boat
They just can’t get out
But they keep working every day as if there’s hope
And that’s it
That’s how we’re living
And to boot, we’re still made to feel guilty
Well, God damn!
How did this happen?
It’s not like we spend all our time spending, spending.
Well, God damn!
If we could get out,
Somehow I know we’d just go right back in.

They say we have to learn to compromise
Stay inside our means and we’ll all be fine but
We’re surrounded by their credit lines
And their payment plans with interest, my oh my and
Why do you think they fucking advertise?
It’s cause we’ll make them rich
While they ruin our lives and
Like Jaycie Jayce in a conga line
I’m in an awkward place and I’m out of time.
And they only say you have to compromise
Once in you’re in too deep
And they own your life and
It’s no wonder that we’re all stressed out
When paying bills is always on our mind and
They say we have to learn to compromise
Stay inside our means and we’ll all be fine but
We’re surrounded by their credit lines
And their payment plans with interest, my oh my and
Why do you think they fucking advertise?
It’s cause we’ll make them rich
While they ruin our lives and
Like Jaycie Jayce in a conga line
I’m in an awkward place and I’m out of time.

Posted in advertising, music, world Tagged: advertising, debt, music, recession, shout out out out ]]> http://catherinebaird.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/shout-out-an-anthem-for-the-recession/feed/ 0 Catherine Baird shoutoutoutout http://catherinebaird.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/banner-ad-blues/ http://catherinebaird.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/banner-ad-blues/#comments Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:44:31 +0000 Catherine Baird http://catherinebaird.wordpress.com/?p=316 ]]>

Most designers I know hate doing banner ads. For a while, I tried really hard to make them interesting for myself by making truly interactive pieces of advertising. But there are a number of problems with banner ads. So many I don’t know where to begin. I was prompted this morning to write about this because I came across a Telus ad, at the bottom of a Globe & Mail article I was reading on the current election in Iran. This is what it looked like… exactly like this:

Um, is it just me, or does this not make sense. Ok, I see some sort of USB thingy sticking out of a Mac Laptop and some messaging “With the Telus Mobile Internet Key” and a button “Find out how”. I can sort of deduce that this is some product that connects my phone to my computer. But that’s about it. Why in the world would I click on this banner? Could you imagine this as a print ad? It would hardly get past the intern. I’m SURE that had I seen the entire animation this end frame might make more sense to me. But I notice this with a lot of designers when they design banner ads…. they assume that like a TV spot, someone will have just seen everything BEFORE this frame.

And the reality is, that’s rarely true.

So here are the problems with banners, in general:

- they are weird and small sizes meaning you can’t really get decent messaging and imagery in them at the same time

- which leads to the fact that we ANIMATE them to get in the whole idea

- which means that they annoy people when they are trying to read

- which means that in 15 seconds you better hope someone is looking at your ad and not reading anything

- which means that you basically have to sum up everything you just said in 5 frames again in the final frame and hope that it makes sense

- which leads to the idea of an interactive banner which teases the user into playing with it

- which then causes two problems:

a) some users feel they are “tricked” by banners and avoid any kind of interaction
b) clients are terrified that if a user doesn’t interact within a certain amount of time, their message is lost and their money was wasted (which ultimately leads to the whole thing being forced to animate and we are back at square one)

Sometimes I think that banners need to get bigger and become static. They need to follow the same approach as print. In magazines and newspapers we have huge full page and even double page ads. There is paid content. All the same stuff that is happening on the web. But we have to stop ANNOYING people while at the same time creating compelling advertising that is relevant to the content someone is engaged in. I know that banner ad sizes are changing… a new 300×600 is coming into the playing field for Canadian sites. I hope that soon we can abolish the 160×600 skyscraper and the 728×90 leaderboard and make large static ads that are beautiful, funny, engaging and that MAKE SENSE if a user just sees it’s resting state.

No offense to the person to made that ad… I’ve caught myself a few times, doing storyboards for banner ads, where I totally forget (for a second) the reality of the user experience.