Just Another Day at the Office

Sometime around 7:45 am the key enters the lock and another day begins at Clever Ogre. Chris Dadant, coffee in hand, steps into the cave. Over the next 15 minutes, his coworkers, who all require lots and lots of caffeine to be productive members of society, will arrive. His early morning energy is both envied and hated.

The groggy ogres, and the one peppy one, settle into their desk chairs. Coffee is consumed by all as music plays. After the overnight emails have been checked and coffee from home has been consumed, a bit of 1-2-3 not it! determines who will make the first pot of ogre coffee.

Someone asks “What’s on the agenda this week?” – clearly it’s time for a meeting. The group gathers around a table in the great room. A close look reveals pens and paper, a sure sign the ogres are ready to take notes…or at least doodle. After all of the upcoming projects have been discussed, each team member returns to his/her desk. The sound of mouse clicks and keystrokes mixes with the music. Work is happening here.

Dadant is stroking his beard as he’s scouring the internet looking for bits of design inspiration. The reason for this is two-fold; he wants to see what kind of design elements are being used by others to suit a particular client or market, he also needs to be sure Clever Ogre doesn’t produce anything that could be confused for anyone else’s work. “We don’t use stock clip art.” he says as he modifies layers, removes strokes, and ogres up an image.

In the same room, Dan is typing away…and singing. It doesn’t matter if he’s writing website copy, a commercial script, a blog, some pithy social media post, or a storyline for a web video, his stoic demeanor is an odd counterpart to the frequent outbursts of overreaction, laughter, and singing. Inspiration comes from everywhere, except other people’s writing. Not reading is a great way to avoid plagiarism.

Over in the corner, Shawn sips on a Java Monster as he stares at code. Sometimes it’s hard to make websites do cool stuff without using Flash, but he finds a way. “Why no Flash?” you ask…a lot of portable devices don’t display Flash content. More than 90% of tablet based web browsing in the U.S. is done on Apple’s iPad, which doesn’t support Flash. The voodoo magic he’s creating over there looks like a bunch of punctuation to the average Internet user. Fortunately, we never have to see that stuff; just the cool things he can do with JavaScript.

Out in the great room, Nora is plucking away at her computer, scheduling meetings and keeping all of the ogre children on track. She spends almost as much time out of the office as she does at her desk. She’s a member of this group, that chamber, and just about any network where humans are welcome. The lady ogre is responsible for being the main point of contact for clients, both current and potential.

Telecommuting is Davis. Everything gets run by him before going out. He’s an emailing and phone calling ogre, for sure. Whatever the other ogres are doing, he’s having a peek and providing his opinion and expertise.

Two or three pots of coffee (and 20 or 30 potty breaks) later, someone blurts out “I’m hungry”, gets up, and makes lunch. One by one, stomachs get the better of bodies and food is consumed by all…at a desk, in front of a computer.

It’s not long before Dan decides it’s time for another pot of coffee. “Anyone want some? Cool. Who’s making it? 1-2-3 Not it!” Sounds of “Not it!” come from the remainder of the team. “Nora, you’re it.”

Soon, afternoon fatigue begins to settle in. Dadant leans back from his monitor, eyes red, and proclaims “This isn’t working!” Writer’s block doesn’t only strike writers. Really, it should just be called creative’s block. Like zombies, the other ogres look up from their work. Dazed, they decide to break the tension with a little teambuilding.

Putting contest!

Stress free and clear headed, the ogres get back to work. The last hour of the workday breezes by. Around 4:00, computers are set to “sleep” and the see you tomorrows begin as each ogre packs up lunch containers and coffee cups.

The same key that began the day turns the same lock to end it.

“See you tomorrow, Clever Ogre.”

In the Box and On the Fence

"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission" 

– Grace Hopper

We’ve all heard, and are likely tired of hearing about, “thinking outside the box” and “pushing the envelope”. These one-time buzz words are now the standard. Folks just think outside the box now. Very few people are still inside the box or folded neatly and tucked in the envelope. To be innovative now, it’s best to get back inside the box and see what can be done in there that hasn’t been done before. Outside the box and pushing the envelope used to mean something. Now, they’re just cliché.

Enter forgiveness and permission. Once we’ve made our way back into the box we find there are things to be done…but these things haven’t been done before because they seemed edgy and questionable. Now is the time to take that edge and slice up what’s questionable. In the box, the quest for new is on and we are all able. The problem is, everything that’s still in the box is in there because we were afraid to take it out. It could be an ugly monster with biting words and design, or it can be a frog-prince. What was once considered risqué is now tame. This means there’s even more in the boxes than we can bring out today. Maybe later.

So, where does this leave us? Well, sometimes it leaves us asking forgiveness. Several companies have launched ad campaigns, only to be on the receiving end of negative publicity. Below are two examples.

Sony, in anticipation of the launch of the new white PSP, launched a campaign pitting a white model versus a black model. Whether or not the campaign had intended racial overtones can be debated. At their simplest, the ads predictably use black and white. Will the newer, white PSP overtake the black one in sales? Fortunately, Sony was able to save face by pulling the ads and apologizing. Black versus white should probably stay in the box for a while longer.

Another advertising faux pas was committed by Spirit Airlines. In June of 2010 they launched a campaign promoting travel to Ft. Lauderdale, Cancun, and Puerto Rico touting the slogan “Check out the oil on our beaches”. The ads featured a bikini clad woman, drenched in spf50. Seeking to take advantage of the 2010 BP oil spill’s devastation of the north Florida coast, Spirit missed the mark. What could have been an interesting campaign, pitting beach against beach in a battle for tourism dollars, ended with the removal of the ads and a small base of angry potential customers.

There are plenty of cases where a great campaign came from what could have been a bad idea. Many of your favorite ads could have been sink or swim. A wrong first impression and even the most well thought work can be cast aside.

Are there any hits or misses that come to your mind? Let us know about them here, on our website, or on Facebook, or Twitter. We’d love to hear from you.