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The Spy Poets: IARPA’s new Metaphor Program
“The Greatest thing by far,” Aristotle declared, “is to be a master of metaphor…. It is a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.” IARPA, the US governmental arm for intelligence research (sometimes [...] Read More…
Common Sense Would Suggest . . .
In a recent global study, 78% of respondents claimed they trust peer recommendations more than they trust advertising. Common sense would suggest that 78% of the advertising budget should be spent on something else, no? The media landscape is constantly changing. Technology [...] Read More…
Curation vs Consumption, Values vs Value
I recall once at a dinner party being asked what I did for a living. My first answer, “I make, build and fix brands” was too vague. My second answer, “I’m in marketing” struck a nerve: “Oh, you’re one of those guys [...] Read More…
Brands: A Force for Good, or for Greed?
The man pictured above is Umair Haque, head of the Havas Media Lab in New York City, and author of a new book, The New Capitalist Manifesto, published in January of this year. Like the book its title plays on, The New [...] Read More…
Shared Value: Let’s Do This!
Some years ago, in the course of researching what kinds of positive values could be associated with ‘brand Canada’, it occurred to me that we might be able to build a platform around the notion of helping to solve some of the [...] Read More…
The Medium is McLuhan
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Marshall McLuhan’s birth. I was reminded of this when I came across a website yesterday calledMarshall McLuhan Speaks. McLuhan has certainly been adopted by many digital enthusiasts as a patron saint, starting with WIRED magazine [...] Read More…
Invisible Heroes
Designers are trained to believe that they are, as one of my younger colleagues used to say, “on a mission from god” to save the world from bad design. People both inside and outside the business joke about that but the reality [...] Read More…
SEO: It Gets Better. We Get Dumber.
The other day, I got an email from someone wanting some clarification regarding an article I wrote about 14 years ago. It was called ‘DUMB’, and it explored the role of graphic design in the dumbing down of western culture, by then [...] Read More…
How ‘Sticky’ is Design Thinking?
On its way to meme-hood, even before it has had a chance to gain purchase in the minds of the people who need it most, the term ‘design thinking’ is showing signs of mutational stress that threaten a common understanding of its [...] Read More…
- posted by
- Robert Bolton
- 16th May 2011
- Posted in
- Art and Culture
- Business Models
- Explorations
- Featured
- Featured Articles
- Organizational Design
- Strategic Innovation
- Uncategorized
EPIC FAIL: Error as the Site of Innovation
The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan believed every unsuccessful act to be successful as discourse. Mistakes are reference points. They re-calibrate our assumptions and reorient our course of action. The culture that doesn’t identify and contemplate its mistakes is condemned to repeat them. [...] Read More…
M/I/S/C/ is a quarterly magazine about business innovation and design thinking. It is distributed in over 28 countries around the world.
Inspiration: Lindsay Page ‘s photography and video installation work have been exhibited internationally. Her photographic work has appeared in magazines including the New Yorker and Camera Austria.
Feature: Marketers Love Drinking Their Kool-Aid: Love, Sex, Emotion and the Brand Experience