Sharp Idea 54 Reflect on the Journey

Number one thing I have to say that because of this project sharpie will never be looked at the same way again. I was shocked to see how much this project affected my day to day life. For the entire semester it loomed over me as a task that need constant attention (god forbid I miss a life experience that will bestow upon me an idea for a sharpie post; therefore I should constantly be thinking about sharpie vaguely in the back of my mind). I do think this project has had the most real world application for me. A small beginners taste of what it might be like if I were to work in the ad business as a creative or art director on a team at an ad agency. There would be the client (product), the intended feeling the client wished the product to have (the brand), and then years of ideas on how many ways can you incorporate that feeling to the product (all the directives). The most frustrating part was feeling that I didn’t have the skills to adequately portray my ideas the way I intended. Yeah, photoshop helped me portray sort of a still image of what I was kind of thinking , but I’ve never taken a class and probably am ignorant of most of its actual potential. Even so there are so many other mediums that I would love to be a professional or at least certified in so that I could actually nail my ideas perfectly in the illustration. This is not to say that all of my posts missed the target of what my mind was actually thinking. I am very proud of quite a few of my posts during this journey. I know that what I really want to focus on is the numbers rather than the art of branding. However, I also know that you don’t have to be an artist to have great ideas. I have become more confident in creative abilities and have struggled through the sharpie posts to feel that now I could do it again. Only the next time around I will be more prepared on what to expect.

The journey was long, sharpies were too plentiful, confidence and aplomb will no longer be in my vocabulary without the connection to this project, but…I did it.

Image made by me as a symbol of my pride for this accomplishment. The woman is “strutting” on water. http://www.sketchup4architect.com/sketchup-3d-components/3D_component_2D_People/large/2d-silhouette-woman-walking-in-a-sweater.jpg
http://media1.santabanta.com/full1/Outdoors/Sunset/sunset-209a.jpg

Sharp Idea 53 Reflect on the Brand

Because of this project confidence, coming from an object, has been taken into a whole new light and seen at a rather intriguing perspective. This was first time I had ever done any project like this before. Using an object to try and display confidence in people was more difficult than I thought. Objects do not have feelings unless you assign them one. So how do you assign sharpie with the feeling of aplomb or confidence when, unless it is being used by someone, is just an object that just sits there.

What I found was that there are many ways to incorporate confidence, like making the inanimate object animate and giving it a sort of magical feel, or putting the pen in the hands of an individual who finds confidence and sharpie is the major reason why. In the end I believe the brand for sharpie is best connected to confidence.

The most enjoyable part about creating a brand is that you, as the creator, get to decide how deep you are willing to go with this concept. For example, you could make the brand confidence very loud and clear in a posters that simply states sharpie is confidence and the image explains why. Or you could go deeper and tell a story to how confidence is linked to sharpie. Or you could go even deeper and give double meanings to confidence, like confidence in yourself or someone instilling confidence in others or what confidence is viewed like from an alien on another planet (be as wild as possible). There are many levels to how obvious or subtle you wish to display the meaning of sharpie. Like in a classical novel or poem; the deeper meaning is so obscure you can only theorize how the connections can be made. However, in an ad it probably isn’t the best idea. Although, I believe now that leaving the audience with the feeling of confidence and they are not sure why they feel that way (inception sharpie) still counts towards achieving the goals of branding your product. As long as somehow and someway confidence came across in my ideas with sharpie, I knew that I had contributed to branding the product.

Sharp Idea 52 Reflect on Sharpie

Before this project sharpie was just a marker that everyone happens to know about and use as the coined definition of virtually any “permanent marker”. The funny part about it was that even if someone was using a off brand permanent marker they still called it a sharpie. Sharpie as a product has come to mean a lot more to me know that before. I began to look at the world with nothing but endless possibilities to use sharpie in it. especially when I found something in life that we want to be permanent (family, love, good grades, success) I started imagining how sharpie, a simple pen, could get you to there. You never realize how much something simple can help you out until you look at way of achieving your goal without that thing. For example, the video recently posted with the couple in it had a new way of achieving a permanent symbol of their love without carving and harming the tree. Another commonly overlooked yet interesting aspect of sharpie, besides its permanence, is they way it stands out; bold and bright. The traditional black sharpie is so dark it stands out brightly from all the other colors that surround it.

Over the course of this project I have become more confident in my understanding of sharpie and it’s actual potential in every aspect of life and the imagination. I will never be able to look at sharpie the same way again but, hey, that’s the ad business.

If I were to think of an idea inspired by my experience with this project it would have to symbolize the way the very core and meaning of sharpie is seen in everyday aspects of our lives. It’s the notes written from mom, the scrapbooking pages of memories, and even in the stories where futuristic aliens are signing a peace treaty with the president. Combining all these ideas and illustrations from past post have give me this nostalgic illustration of sharpie and all the ways you can look at something that seems plain, and with a little bit of curiosity and confidence, make it into something powerful.

Sharp Idea 51 Care. A Lot

Inspired by Earth Day me and collaborative team came up with a sharpie video idea involving a couple. The girl in the relationship really cares about the environment and the guy tends not to notice. He is also more self absorbed and the girl is shy and tends not to speak up as much. My role in this collaboration for caring about the environment is to create the outline so as accurately as possible here it is:

Opening in Monroe Park. It is evening and we see a couple sitting down on the sidewalk. The man is mostly improv talking about his day allowing little input by his shy date. He thinks they are madly in love and she is just happy to be in the situation and doesn’t want to say anything wrong. He ends up suggesting that they carve their name into the trees. She stops him because she is a strong supporter of the environment and cares a lot about protecting it. She suggests a sharpie because it does less harm on the tree than carving out its bark. In the end, he admired her confidence and their relationship still permanently placed on the bark of the tree.

To elaborate on this idea the video could go beyond our short and the man and woman could come back at graduation and find that their markings were still on the tree. So in a sense sharpie can do the same thing as carving a knife and does less damage on the environment but still have that permeant effect the couples are looking for.

The video representation was done pretty accurately to the brainstorm and outline. Furthermore, the actors were ad-libbing the entire scene which added to the comedic aspect that was left for open interpretation. The video editor and recorder uploaded the video and did an excellent job!

 

Sharp Idea 50 Care. A Lot

When branding sharpie and taking into consideration sharpie’s “personality” what would sharpie care about the most. Which cause would it want to support as a company and organization. The cause would also stand for what sharpie, at its core, stands for. The things that come to mind is illiteracy and education cause in America. Sharpie would be a great supporter of education and schools in the American society. Many may already know that there is a serious problem with the education system and, especially in impoverished areas, students get lost in the system and teachers on tenure don’t want to be bothered with the troublesome students by the time they reach high school. Underfunding, insufficient learning environment, and low chances of success in public schools has left the country with 32 million adults in 2013 who are illiterate.

So why American education? Those who can read have a better understanding and with understanding comes self improvement. From there a student may not feel frustrated and lost in the education system and turn to violent activity or menial jobs as their lifelong career. Success in ones life also leads to higher self esteem and confidence in oneself. Of course sharpie doesn’t just have to stop and the borders of the United States. It could expand it’s charitable acts over to other countries willing to take on the sharpie challenge towards becoming literate in their own native tongue. Nobody would ever have to feel undermined, placed beneath society, or embarrassed because they could not read or understand text.

While reaching out for this charitable cause, sharpie also has a better chance of creating a new role and face to the public as an educator. “Sharpie Supports Schools/Literacy/Education/Reading” are a short simple example of the charitable campaign helping out children as well as establishing the brand.

Sharp Idea 49 Care. A Lot

In the upcoming event known as mothers day many children of mothers get to celebrate how much they care about their moms (if they didn’t do so everyday already like they should as many mom would say). Anyway, my idea for mothers day and sharpie are to bring back the memories where your mom was always there to help you out, boost your confidence, or stay prepared. An example with my mom would be her writing my name on all my things “just in case” but she really is looking out for me. She knows I would be devastated if I lost my calculator or jacket. That’s why she permanently writes my name on all of it just to help make sure it is harder for me to lose my things forever. Other examples might include when moms leave notes in lunch boxes and you find a little note saying “You’re the best!” , as a confidence boost or, “I love you!” , just to let you know she is proud of you and always thinking about you even though you’ve been away. It is moms like these that deserve the best gift ever that a mom could want; handmade ones by you. In these types of projects you want to be sure that it reflects how much you know she is cares about you and how much you care about her.

Therefore, in a billboard or even a commercial illustrating  how mothers use sharpie to convey their caring attitudes toward their children and how children use sharpie to portray their love and care for mom through a handmade gift; like a card decorated in the bold ink from sharpie are all prime examples of how to portray this type of caring and confidence in sharpie. On a billboard it could just be the card, or in a commercial it would tell the whole story.

Card I made to represent my mom’s heart of gold. Sharpie was the only marker that woulnt pierce through layers of glue and soggy construction paper.

Sharp Idea 48 Care. A Lot

So a very real stressor is a terrible thing called finals. Where everything you have worked on the entire year comes to mean all or nothing in one day. The 20% of your grade rests on this very last grade. So yes many phoenix students rise from the ashes of this day and can walk the rest of their summer in confidence knowing they will never have to go through the worry and stress of that class again, if they pass the test. My idea for a commercial or poster would be to “study with sharpie”. For all the visual learners, the bolder and more vibrant letter words are most likely to be remembered. According to an overall study, 65% of students categorize themselves as visual learners.  With this is mind sharpie can capitalize the use of their product to focus in on students during finals weeks and having these ads. Sharpie is there as a study tool to ensure that students who care about their grades are confident with their results.

So I came up with the idea of what if sharpie was a tutor? Motivational speeches of course but also study materials that show how writing stuff out and then studying helps with memorization. Writing with color codes, images, bold, or underline, also develop learning abilities that can ultimately improve test scores when the learning curve is overcome.

Below is an illustration. The original class image was take off the internet (http://www.wordsinspace.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1305675722-room-class-school-classroom-teacher-blackboard-college-wallpaper-wallpaper.jpg) and from there I gave a visual representation of the students who passes because of studying with a sharpie (green glow pen). The red colored students are ones who theoretically could’ve passed if their studying habits were corrected. Even the illustration, which is a visual interpretation, proves the intake of knowledge and  retaining it comes from visual representations (notice the bright pen colors). All of which help develop this idea.

A unique difference between this post and all my others, beside the fact that I talked and created an illustration was that this is the first research like ad ideas I have displayed. An usually different approach to this idea gave me a new outlet for discussing brands development as well as the products.

A unique difference between this post and all my others, beside the fact that I talked and created an illustration was that this is the first research like ad ideas I have displayed. An usually different approach to this idea gave me a new outlet for discussing brands development as well as the products.   
Here is a site where I found some of my information.

http://info.shiftelearning.com/blog/bid/350326/Studies-Confirm-the-Power-of-Visuals-in-eLearning

Sharp Idea 47 Care. A lot.

One of the projects that I have sunk my heart, and endless hours of effort, into lasted for four years. I never wanted to stop being a part of the team that builds the book of memories each year throughout middle and high school. I first started working on the yearbook staff when I was in 8th grade. This was the only course that made me feel like I was doing something important. I was apart of a project that I knew everyone in my school was going to see so I set out to be the best. By the time I was working on the high school yearbook I was also volunteering to help create books for several other elementary schools, all of which were school I never attended. So basically, yearbook was the best thing I ever got to do that really made me feel I was making some kind of lasting difference in the world. I wanted to make it perfect. This also may sound pathetic and strange, that I am so gung-ho about yearbook, however I felt my the most confident in my life when I was in charge of creating the yearbook.

My idea for branding sharpie would be to have testimonials of the other people who have felt this way in their lives. Sharpie’s support in this would display confidence in others to fully develop their passion and be proud of their achievements. I know I even used sharpie when doing edits of the book before we submitted the final layout. I am sure others have projects they care a lot about and would be willing to display their accomplishments to the world. Sharpie is apart of the bigger projects in our life. The ones we feel have left a mark on the history we create, and the projects we are confident to shout about out to the world.

The furthest book, and the smallest, is my very first book I participated in building in middle school. The one in the front was the actual book where I was editor in chief and fell in love with the process while also having to say goodbye to yearbook as a student forever.

Sharp Idea 46 Be Absurd

What is the dark side of sharpie. The prism of light. It is amazing if you think about it. Something that seems so plain is actually full of interesting, bright, and vibrant colors. All you have to do is think of sharpie in a new way. In a different angle. What if the tip of the sharpie was the prism and your ideas are in the light. All you have to do is gain the confidence to pursue your ideas and, with a little help from sharpie, results are better than you can image. It is an absurd metaphor, but still a valuable thought.

To symbolize the idea I created the below illustration. My idea to promote this thought was that in a commercial or poster where there would be an individual who has writer’s block. As a joke he looks at his pencil and says,

“Why aren’t you working today.” pretending the pencil is alive.

He grabs his pen and tries to write, but unfortunately nothing happens.

“Oh no, not you too!” This creative writer is clearly out of his mind but to him his writing tools are his friends that help him portray to the world all the great ideas and beauty in writing he has to offer to the world. Also, it is sort of comical to witness this man talking to his pens.

Finally, he picks up he sharpie and starts to doodle. His face lightens up as you can see he has gotten a great new idea for his next big novel. He hold the marker up and says

“Yes, thats it! I know what to write about now!” and in that moment of clarity the open sharpie tip is held up into the light on his ceiling fan and reflects colorful words onto the walls. They are reflections of all the words and story ideas he’s had in his mind. The light bounces off the sharpie and refracts onto every corner of his room.

Confidence in this ad is revealed through the writer and how he pursues his abilities once he is given a little push ahead thanks to sharpie. In the end it is revealed that the sharpie company hasn’t been supplying pens all these years, but confidence, creativity, success, and power. 

Sharp Idea 45 Be Absurd

Our inhibitions create a shell. We are like crab people (maybe event crabby people). Each day is filled with opportunities not monopolized upon because there we don’t want to take the risk. Why should we? The world has a lot of negative and hateful people who just want to judge and criticize you on your life, daily decisions and ideas. Well what can they say once the world has moved on from the moment of judgement. So I have some absurd ideas that I am going to share even if I know it is silly and could generate criticism, but who cares.

There is sharpie in the future and during this time aliens have invaded earth looking for a new place to settle and colonize. They have been living among us for generations now and have decided on earth being the best location.

In the middle of New York City, the hologram Jumbotron is playing the news station where the Leader of the alien race, Omnono, is handing the President their written agreement for peace. When the treaty is delivered the President cant sign it because alien paper an solid air type material and his pen cannot write on it.

“Quick, someone get me something to write with!” shouts the president.

The aliens both look at each other and, in subtitles, we see that they are discussing whether or not the President seems like he is going to be backing out of the treaty. The whole world is nervous and the aliens look ready to nullify the treaty and start a war. Then a man burst in and on international television holds up a sharpie.

“Wait! I have the solution.” the man yells.

The President looks at the man.

“A permanent marker? Are you sure?” asks the President slightly worried.

“Sir, I am confident.”

“The fate of the world is in your hands, son.” remarks the President

The man nods. As the President walks over to the aliens he signs the treaty ‘EARTH’ and the world cheers in happiness and humans and aliens live in peace.

The End

a silly symbolization of the treaty. I used aerogel as the alien “paper” and there is a subtle light background on the sign letter where normal pen could barely been seen