Jordan Wollman Creative Direction

Yesterday there was a great interview with Jim Coudal by Mellisa Pierce of Life In Perpetual Beta.

Anyway, there were quite a few little gold nuggets I took away from this video. I’m sure there are plenty more, but these stuck out to me:

If you can get in touch with what’s happening in the creative process, maybe you can make it happen more often.

3 questions we always ask ourselves before getting started on a project:

1. Are we gonna make money?
2. Will we be proud of it?
3. Will we learn something new?

Yes, yes, yes, let’s do it.

You’ve got to fail a lot, or you’re not trying hard enough.

Well, here it is a mere two weeks since the launch of the iPhone 3G and the iPhone firmware 2.0, and I am lounging in a chair outside a restaurant, blogging to my hearts content. I also just updated my Twitter status, and chatted with a few friends via AIM.

The oppotunities the iPhone offers those who desire true mobile connectivity are as endless as the number of random and worthless games I have come across so far.

But, this is really pretty fun. A bit later than 2001, and no HAL 9000, but still.

It’s how you make them feel.

That’s why your corporate culture is such an incredibly powerful medium. Make your prospects, your clients, your interviewees, anyone outside your organization, really experience your culture.

In the long run, your culture is a lot more profitable than your product or your service. People actually waited in line for an iPhone 3G. Not a single one of them waited in line without being injected with the Apple culture, which was utilized to hype the release of a second-gen, not-much-better-than-the-last-one product.

So, Wordpress 2.5 is out now, and I have to admit, this version is pretty sweet. There are definitely some improvements that have been long coming, but the feature I am most excited about is the improved visual editor.

We’ll see what comes of the rest, and this new admin interface… very intriguing.

There are some very interesting things happening in the iPhone world. Obviously Steve Jobs’ announcement of the iPhone Roadmap sparked a lot of interest on the blogosphere, but I certainly didn’t expect the 2.0 software to be jailbreaked this quickly. The 2.0 software isn’t even released!

The Official SDK has also been downloaded over 100,000 times in only a few days.

What does this mean for the iPhone? It’s already one of the single best selling portable devices ever, and is so widely adopted that I saw a woman, who had to be in her late 70s, waiting for her car to be ready at the VW dealership watching a video on her iPhone. Ridiculous!

I think it spells hype, which of Steve Jobs is the master of generating. But, for once, I believe the iPhone is worthy of said hype. As I referenced in a previous post, the iPhone is a truly amazing product that delivers on its promise.

I can tell you one thing for certain. If I didn’t already own (and practically run my entire life on) an iPhone, I’d be lusting after one daily. I am excited to see what happens when their reported enterprise features are released, and to see the products of the awesome power of a hyper-devoted development culture at the helm of creativity.

I am currently walking from my house down the street to my parents house typing this post on my iPhone.

I can safely say that this product is every bit what I thought it would be, and has enabled me to do things I thought I never would, like managing my website anywhere I am. In fact, I find myself blogging about the fact that I’m blogging about the fact that I am blogging on my phone. That did make sense in my head.

My point is this though — a great product delivers on its promise.

This is most assuredly the largest of my many pet peeves: the improper usage of the words less and fewer.

Here’s a trick; if it ends in “S”, it’s not less. Or another trick; if you can count it, it’s not less.

Example 1) “I suddenly had less water in my glass than before.” Because the word “water” describes a volume, and cannot be counted, it is less.

Example 2) “When I looked up, there were fewer people than I remembered.” Here I am using a word that describes a collection, which can be counted, and therefore is fewer.

The reason I even bring something like this up so often — and those of you who know me know I do — is that it is a basic grammatical error. The proper usage does not require a degree in language, or the vast study of the Greek etymology of our wordage. It is most importantly the basis for simple eloquence.

It is the most basic adherence to the rules of English that polish your appearance to other intelligent members of the professional world, not the depth of your vocabulary or the speed in which you can recall useless facts.

Here’s the kicker; this is not just about this one rule. This applies to all aspects of your profession. Take the time to educate yourself, and most importantly, if you are ever corrected, make sure you verify the claim, and once you have, imprint this in your brain. Burn it in there so deeply that in your sleep you don’t slip up.

This is the surest path to sounding intelligent.

Social networking sites are popping up like mushrooms in a damp basement. Companies are trying to take advantage of the community by providing “new and innovative” ways to connect with each other – which is another way of saying “catching up with the true viral nature of early-adopters”.

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