Textura Design Blog

Pam & Palin: Group Photo

2008-09-03T14:50:26Z

Cross-posted from Bike Hugger. Pam, our office manager and my wife, competed with Governor Palin in the Miss Alaska Pageant.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

Tram Art

2008-08-20T19:20:12Z

finding art everywhere, even on a Tram ride.

Uploaded by science | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

IDF San Francisco 2008

2008-08-19T02:53:09Z

We’re hard at work on upgrading the Intel Blog Network to Movable Type 4.2, about to launch another new Intel blog, and didn’t have the bandwidth for IDF San Fran this year. That’s a bummer, but we’re watching online for Atom and other mobile technology.

Follow IDF

From Ming to Bling

2008-08-17T16:52:48Z

I don’t even know how I got on their mailing list (maybe I handed them a business card at a party) - if it’s spam or not — but BURB magazine has been sending me e-mail ever since Beijing and I noticed the photos this time. BURB offers an artistic viewpoint and creative thinking about Beijing.

The Games are half way done. The world has watched in awe. Beijing’s air is clean, crisp even, after a day of rocket triggered rainfall. A picture perfect moment of national pride and peacefulness; all kept in check by 300,000 new surveillance cameras recently installed. But what is the impact on the Chinese society? Can this projected self-image become a lasting reality, like a self-fulfilling prophecy? Or, when the smog rolls back over Beijing, will a increasingly demanding population take a stand? This month events highlight the “society under construction.”

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

Intel China Blogs

2008-08-04T20:32:34Z

Textura Design has been to China 3 times and with the Olympics approaching, I wanted to share our previous posts and some thoughts.

That photo is of Intel China. Our first trip to Beijing was for the Intel Developer Forum and to help launch the Intel China blog. During the launch, we observed

… the blogs themselves have only minimal layers of approval to go through between inception and launch and Intel’s bloggers are left free to post, apart from some pretty standard corporate legal rules they must follow. This freedom leads where you would expect: the up-and-coming Intel bloggers we talk to are personally, genuinely excited to have this outlet for their thoughts and Blogs@Intel is generating candid, interesting content as a consequence.

The Intel China Blog contines to thrive. During the visit, I commented to our hosts that I couldn’t believe Beijing would be ready for the Olympics, one of them said, “never underestimate the will of the Chinese people.” I don’t now.

For another perpesctive of our travels in China, see Rush Hour in Beijing.

SXSW 09: Simple, Southwesterly

2008-08-01T20:31:02Z

Great looking site for SXSW 09. Blue Flavor worked on the IA & UX and deserves some props. Seeing the site launched, reminded me to post that TDI will represent again at SXSW with Bike Hugger. Details TBA.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

Everyone's A Twittic

2008-07-30T19:37:03Z

I love Twitter as a delivery device for witticisms, observations, cynical remarks, and links to the funny. clever, or cool. But where Twitter really excels is in delivering pointed, often passive-aggressive criticism. It’s a great substitute for writing “Joann is a slut” on the bathroom wall or talking shit about clients at AIGA receptions. When done well, a Twitter criticism will be seen by the object of your ire inspiring pangs of defensiveness, but leave them in sufficient doubt that they’ll never call you out. To wit:

These Twitter Criticisms—Twitticisms, if you like—are a vital part of the Twitter social model. They’re a vent for frustration and bile which might otherwise be expressed by a foot to the dog’s ass. Instead of facing difficulties head on, and addressing them to the party directly, the Twittic sends it to Twitter in the hope, nay belief, that somewhere out there, someone will read it and say “Yeah, totally man! Joann really is a slut.”

2008 Volvo XC70 Weekend

2008-07-18T04:58:48Z

Seattle Volvo got us this car for the weekend just to drive and review. While yes we mostly ride, when we do drive, a wagon is our choice. Here’s what I thought.

It’s a different car than the 07 XC70, which had like 20 years of refinement. As a luxury wagon, it’s got all the trimmings, but also floats with more of an American-tuned feel than Euro-sport. It doesn’t feel “rugged” and sporty. More isolated and refined. For example, I’d plow my 07 Cross County right through a field to get to a bike race. Not this car — it’d do it, but it doesn’t feel like it wants to do it. Maybe it’s a sissified Volvo?

The engine has lit up the forums and blogs with lots of comments. I found it much more refined, smooth, and also totally different. That 5 cylinder turbo was like 25 years old and this responds like a V6 and was good for driving around. It’s also throaty and quick. But, fully loaded from Costco with the family, it doesn’t have enough power. For a car in this class, it does get decent mileage and emissions are good.

The biggest difference besides the appearance of the car is the road noise. It’s drastically reduced inside and what was a good stock stereo in previous years is even better now.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the dreeping set on Flickr.

Gross Anatomy

2008-07-16T19:00:00Z

The Matthew Modine vehicle, Gross Anatomy is a bit of late 80s fluff about a first year medical student who must come to grips with the messy business of practicing medicine. Doctors, it turns out, have to deal with real people, who are not as neat and orderly as Gray's Anatomy (the classic medical text, not the primetime tv show) might portray. During the course of his own gross anatomy education, Modine's character gains some critical real-world knowledge and skills, and then he beds Daphne Zuniga.

In a classic medical education, gross anatomy is the point at which you start practicing the theory you've learned by dissecting an actual human, and later, budding doctors learn on live patients. But imagine if physicians went straight from coursework into practice, never having dealt with any real patients. In our consulting practice, it often feels like we're stuck back in basic anatomy, where we come no closer to real reality than a textbook.

We meet people all day long who talk about blogging and social media as if they were experts, and boy are they up on the latest terminology. But when we scratch the surface, we discover they they don't actually do any of these activities themselves—they have no idea how the actual tools work and have never struggled personally with the real world complications of making and keeping connections with an audience. It's easy to mouth words like "conversational marketing" when you have no skin in the game, but what does it really mean, how do you do it, and what if no one wants to talk to you?

That's a main reason we maintain side projects like Bike Hugger, Snow Hugger, and Clip-n-Seal. (The other main reason is: they're fun). We don't want to be stuck in a classroom talking theory, we like being in the lab, trying stuff out and seeing what happens. Our laboratories are where we explore boundaries and find out how the risks and rewards play out across different media. E.g.,:

How bad is it, really, when you make a gaff?
Can a contests increase your audience over the long term?
Which of the spam-reduction methods give the greatest return on effort?
Is there any ROI for a Facebook presence?
Which comments should you allow and which should you disallow?

We consistently find that our real-world experiences trump any report written by a third party. The experiences of others are interesting and useful, but too many marketing and PR practitioners thinks they can substitute reports for specific experience. It can lead to some dramatic differences of opinion when we're put in a room full of other consultants or when we challenge the wisdom dolled out by other experts. So what are the big lessons we've learned in our laboratories?

Find something you're interested in and make content about it.
There's no white paper or acronym for having something interesting to say.
It's almost never about what platform you're using.
You never know where you'll get your next "hit," so experimentation is critical.

If you're a doctor, show me your patients. If you're social media practitioner—a pundit, expert, consultant, program manager, marketer, etc.—show me your content. If you're not trying things out and even failing in places where it matters, you don't have the grounding to understand these complex and abstract media.

I Die Daily: The Making of Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle

2008-07-15T19:26:41Z

This Friday and Saturday, 911 Seattle Media Arts is hosting a screening and fundraiser for I Die Daily: The Making of Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle. you to come meet special effects artist and documentary filmmaker Matt Wallin.

the film reveals the creative process of Matthew Barney, featuring never-before-seen footage of Barney at work on the Cremaster Cycle, the sculptural film piece that inspired the New York Times to call him “the most important artist of his generation.”

911 Seattle Media Arts Gallery and Theater
Opening Reception: Friday July 18th 6:00pm – 10:00pm
Friday July 18th – Saturday August 30th, 2008