Byrne doesn’t simply make music. He also designs chairs:

And bike racks:

He directs movies:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And creates fine art using Excel Power Point:

He is a photographer:

Data visualizer:

Record label owner:

Sound architect?

Tibor Kalman:

Howard Finster:

Jonathan Demme:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And of course, Brian Eno:

If you’re still reading this, a final personal antecdote: Over ten years ago, when I was just starting on my career path and Byrne was fully established in his, I invested (I say invest as I could barely afford rent much less art books) in a book called Strange Ritual by Byrne and the art director Gary Koepke (who went on to found the ad agency Modernista). I was so taken by the book that I sent Byrne a copy of my new zine with a request for him to submit a photo to our next issue. The zine was clearly the work of young and inexperienced people learning as they went, and I didn’t honestly expect a reply. A few weeks later though, he contacted me with a new, original photo essay he had created specifically for the magazine and even went so far as to create oversized beautiful prints of the work as submissions to a gallery show we were curating.

I would assume it was a good feeling, not an conscience analysis, that prompted him to contribute in a way most professional artists would consider a poor career decision or unworthy use of time. I never got the opportunity to properly thank or repay him, but think the best way to do so is to remember the value of paying this philosophy forward: sometimes (not always, but sometimes) it’s OK to stop making sense.

He ended with a shot across the bow: “The current days of the Internet will soon be over.”

It’s about to get interesting.

Back when we were floating high inside the web 1.0 bubble, it became indisputably accepted that online content was going to be free and advertising was going to pay for it. And until recently this worked since there was still enough media money in circulation to fuel experimentation and allow digital to continue as a loss leader with an eye toward the future.

But things have changed. Quickly.

Long tail economics are working swimmingly for the aggregates – the blog networks, ad networks, search engines, etc – prosper through triangulation while those that actually create the content that gives these engines their value die a little more each day. Watch in the coming months as the providers, who are now quite literally in a fight for survival, begin to circle the wagons and shoot back.

But within this climate there is also real promise. Necessity being the mother of invention, we may now (finally) begin to see the growth of micropayments in our near future.

Numerous companies have already tried and failed to introduce these systems, but please keep in mind that only a few years ago, it was predicted that consumers wouldn’t trust online security in large enough numbers to sustain retail on a mass level. Consumers are increasingly willing to pay for great online content, it is the high, one time price tag and the hassle of inputting credit card info that is the barrier keeping publishers from our money.

When the barriers are removed, we are generally more than willing to pay 25 cents for a text, 99 cents for a song, so why not 1 cent for an article?

With the introduction of internet ez-pass type payments, users will be able to pass through web pages fractions of a cent at a time. From video games to recipes, from pornography to journalism, this will allow the actual creators to be properly compensated for their work.

Individuals like former Time editor Walter Isaacson and start-ups like Kachingle are pushing just such sytems. But leading this charge will likely require new habit-changing products like the Kindle, which is already beginning to do for print what iPhone did for music. Or more immediately, the new iPhone itself which will change the whole game again this summer by allowing for third party micropayments within its upcoming software update.

In our new data-driven world, micropayments might begin to apply to how creative agencies are compensated as well. Creative and media will likely increasingly begin merging services, molding to a more performance-based system. This doesn’t need to adversely effect creativity though, since appealing to more sophisticated eyeballs might pay better than the blunderbuss approach.

Watch for Labs to be dabbling in exactly these kinds of methods in the months ahead. We welcome further conversation by potentially interested partners and clients here.

http://www.morenewmath.com/

To quickly recap: As a innovations unit tasked with exploring new models in communications, we needed a logo that can convey our mission and philosophy. So it made sense to try crowdsourcing to experiment first-hand with how all this might fit into our industry down the line. In the process, we hoped to find fresh talent who are marketing their skills in new ways.

A lot of people asked why would we do something like this? Don’t we have great designers in-house? Doesn’t that stuff commoditize design? Isn’t that exploitive?

That’s beside the point: the pros and cons of crowdsourcing design can be debated ’till we are blue in the face but the fact is, the model seems to work and therefore deserves our attention.

Currently, we believe it works best for small or start-up clients. But as the model evolves it has a lot potential to work for larger clients with more demanding needs.

These new technologies aren’t going away, so it’s now our duty to understand how to work with them. We can continue to insist that us trained professionals are irreplaceable by the untrained crowd (and end up like our poor friends in journalism), or we can start figuring out how to turn eggs into omelets. From our viewpoint, this isn’t about preparing for the day that creative agencies can outsource design, it’s about preparing for the day that clients can outsource creative agencies.

BBH Labs believes that in the not-too-distant future, creative agencies are going to resemble expanded networks, with core teams overseeing expansive partnerships rather than the more vertically-integrated models existing today (more to come on this topic later). We see these kinds of partnerships and platforms happening across media increasingly already.

The task now is to find out how to build these new models in a way that is fair to all involved. Crowdsourcing our logo was the first tiny step in a larger Labs process to come – the medium was the message.

(For full post click below)

And what a message: we received a whopping 1,740 submissions, a record for Crowdspring! Though we don’t confuse quantity with quality, as long as the designs were created with care and passion, we appreciated each and every one submitted.

Regarding the process, just like in the non-crowdsourcing world, we noticed a few talented leaders pushed forward the output from the rest of the crowd (the 80/20 equation was a bit closer to 90/10). Due to this, we found ourselves rating work higher or lower, not necessarily on specific merits, but in an attempt to sway overall direction. At a point, we began to contact designers we thought had potential, asking to see their portfolios and bios rather than continue to judge them on logos submitted. This allowed us a glimpse into what kinds of people are actually working on the site and to our surprise, we found a very, very interesting and eclectic group: established designers looking for opportunities to experiment with smaller clients, ambitious start-up agencies that don’t have a client base yet, promising designers in foreign countries that don’t have face-to-face networking opportunities, and more. From a designer’s perspective, there are multiple opportunities for creative exploration and relationship building and according to Ross E. Kimbarovsky, Crowdspring co-founder, 50% of work provides direct follow-up work.

Unfortunately, we can only award one designer the job, but we made some interesting contacts for the new BBH Labs family and are looking forward to working with them in the future. The designer we chose to work with on this project is named Dan Spulber and he is a academic, bicyclist, master potter from Romania. We enjoy his views on design as well as the fact that he submitted a thoroughly original sketch that seemed to absorb our mission. We will now begin working with Dan to perfect our logo and hope to share it with everyone shortly.

As discussed previously, our single biggest issue with the process is that crowdsourcing design sites resemble an open call model more than an open source model. And though this model works quite well for the client, it seems unfair to reward only one designer for work that is improved upon by many. We know that there are talented entrepreneurs like Ben Kaufman at Kluster exploring solutions to the filtering and reward issues we faced and we hope to have the opportunity to be involved in perfecting the process.

This is only the beginning. The next few years will give way to further and accelerated media decentralization as more and more individuals, companies, crowds (and mobs) come together online to experiment and improve upon each others successes. There will be no failures here.

And as for Labs, we are excited, scared, fascinated and fortunate to be a small voice in the growing crowd.

In eager anticipation of the new Terminator film, I’ve done a little poking around into what’s happening in the world of robots.

The main action in this area is clearly in Asia. And while Korea pushes ahead with plans to build robot parks, even going so far as to introduce legislation for a robot code of ethics to “Prevent Android Abuse and Protect Humans,” it’s the Japanese who appear to be in the quickest sprint to building a creepy robo-future.

Due to strict immigration laws and a quickly aging population (its expected that 1/3 of its citizenry will be over 60 by 2050) the country is racing to realize a day when robots can provide care for their elderly, clean homes and provide administrative office tasks. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is actively involved in supporting the development of intelligent robots and hopes to introduce many of the models in development into the marketplace by 2015.

Here’s a cross-sample of what’s in store…

PARO
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Paro is the “World’s most therapeutic robot.” It uses an array of sensors to respond to audible, visual, and tactile stimulation. Each Paro attains a unique personality of sorts due to its ability to be trained to execute (or refrain from) specific actions. Pet Paro and he knows he is being rewarded for good behaviour, smack him and he will do his best not to repeat that behaviour. (For full post click below)

Click here to view the embedded video.

RI-MAN
Ri-Man is designed to care for the elderly. He is capable of lifting and carrying humans and can also see, hear and smell.

HRP-4C
Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology recently unveiled a 95 pound robotic fashion model designed for the catwalk. The not-so-stylishly named HRP-4C, with a initial $200,000 price tag and a “ordinary” figure that isnt “tall enough” according to fashion insiders, appears not quite ready for prime-time.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So whats the problem?

Its true, they do seem cute. That said, below is my list of “Top 10 Technology Goes Awry, Worst Case Scenario Ensues” films.

Maximum Overdrive (Emilio Estevez! Stephen King! Killer appliances!)
I, Robot
Wargames
Metropolis
The Stepford Wives
Alien
The Matrix
The Terminator
2001 Space Oddysey
Blade Runner

A free LEGO Bobba Fett keychain to anyone that can help me add the next name to the list.

From the latter crowd I keep hearing this analogy that using Crowdspring is akin to outsourcing (complete with images of dank foreign sweatshops). If were going to trade in metaphors, I would counter by labeling this crowd protectionist. (Picture angry immigration opponents rallying to protect US jobs they probably don’t want in the first place.)

This isn’t outsourcing and this isn’t bootlegging. This is simply about an expanded marketplace. And as long as your product is best-in-market, you’ll always have best-in-market work at your door.

One last thing I need to note as some are accusing us of being exploitive and that bothers me greatly. (MORE BELOW)

For BBH Labs, this is definitely not about undercutting rates. The easier thing for us to do would have been to call on a number of established designers we’ve worked with or simply kept the project inhouse with our more than fantastic design team. But exploring new approaches is why we have “Lab” in our title.

Now, that said, one week into the process, I’m having one or two issues.

First, many of the designs being presented seem to be slapped together without much care or thought. As a client, it is taking considerable time to filter through, which adds a cost to the bottom line of my company. Our initial interest in Crowdspring is an attempt to find young talent, so I accept this process as more efficient than if we had to conduct portfolio reviews in the analog world.

The bigger issue I have is fair remuneration. The Crowdspring design process is fully transparent and this is great. When I comment on my likes and dislikes regarding a specific design, other designers take note and follow suit, sometimes, very literally, borrowing the basic typography of one designer and then building off it. Fantastic from the client’s perspective: I’m getting the best of the individual and the best of the crowd – all for one price! Now the problem is that I can only award one person the job and it isn’t fair for me to reward that person 100% for work that may have been built off another person’s work.

Hence my current conundrum halfway to deadline.

I realize Crowdspring is only eight months old and the online opensource community not much older. But when money is on the table, a winner-take-all approach doesn’t seem to hold true to the process.

Maybe this is a problem that Crowdspring with the help of the design community can come together to help solve?

The experiment continues. Have a great weekend.

Though we were discussing Mid-East policy, my mind went immediately to brand marketers who essentially faces the same issues: how easily a single crafty teenager can ju-jitsu multi-million dollar budgets and turn big business assets into liabilities.

So I took a stroll through the darker alleys of the internet to peek at marketing and outreach techniques by some of society’s better-known ideological enemies. I collected a few links below (before stopping in fear of having an FBI file opened on me).

To be honest, gang members, terrorists and racial hate groups don’t seem to as technology and media-savvy as I expected. All the sites I found could have been created by the same web designer (in 1998): free hosting, terrible anthem-like music files, and lots of broken links. I get the sense many of these sites are constantly on the move, remaining one step ahead of hosting companies and law enforcement agencies whose job it is to stomp them out in a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.

Please proceed through the links below with caution… (MORE BELOW)

Barrio Avenues Gang Los Angeles myspace page

Hells Angel’s Las Vegas Chapter

Georgia Crips

The dangers of remedial banner buys: Crips brand sponsors include Sprint, T-Mobile and Kaplan University.

National Front

While the minimum age requirement to roll for the Crips is 11, it is 14 to stomp for the National Front. The outreach program seems to be effective with voting age members as the site is celebratory over their big 2008 election gains.

Jihad for kids

Translated as “The Conqueror,” this Hamas website offers children first-hand tales of proud mothers of martyrs celebrating their son’s journey to paradise by buying all the neighborhood children figs and dates. I also found an interesting Space Invader-like game and would love to know what the text underneath says if anyone reading this post speaks Arabic.

Have any more?

We’re posting a brief on Crowdspring well aware of the heated discussions taking place within the design community regarding sites that promote spec work. Though the crowdsourcing business model is still clearly in its infancy, BBH Labs reasoning for giving Crowdspring a try, simply put, is because the model seems to be working (albeit, better for smaller companies).

We’ve heard the arguments against Crowdspring. We’ve heard it said that it lowers the standard of what is considered “good” design. But for the purposes of this conversation, isn’t a “good” design one that pleases the person paying for it? I think Marley and Me is a “bad” film. My niece disagrees. So be it.

Another argument is that the Crowdspring model is akin to outsourcing, putting professional design work in the hands of untrained amateurs, and in the process, driving down the price real designers are able to charge for their services. If you’re a great designer, these sites shouldn’t be a threat since aspiring designers willing to work on spec is nothing new. If you’re a mediocre designer on the other hand, then consider that new technologies will only continue to make you better: just as the mouse made you better and Adobe Illustrator made you better, competing on a larger playing field should also make you better (and add to your bottom line).

I don’t want to sound overly insensitive, but evolution isn’t always orderly: we are living in a transformational period and in order to not be put out to pasture prematurely, entire industries are having to retrain themselves and rethink how business is going to be conducted going forward. From young designers to established agency networks, change is coming.

I’ll stop rambling now and come back to why we like Crowdspring. We see these sites as giving much more than they take. By matchmaking small businesses that wouldn’t have been able to otherwise afford a custom logo with a pool of designers that wouldn’t have otherwise been able to offer their services, they are helping to grow an overall appreciation for design as well as build an entirely new market that didn’t previously exist.

Will Crowdspring deliver Labs a great logo that meets our demanding and sophisticated needs? Not sure, but we’re looking forward to fishing these new waters nonetheless.