Sharp Idea 43 Be Absurd

What if sharpie were in the hands of a monk. Strange idea. All I know about monks are probably stereotypical. I picture them just like the people on that mountain in China in the second Karate Kid with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith.  Either way if sharpie were with monks there it would sit with all the other monks on top of some risky looking cliff contemplating the answers to all the worlds problems and becoming one with nature. Very peaceful and tranquil scene. However, this story is just getting started. One evening a lost traveler ran into the monk with sharpie he asks

“Please, I need your help. I was traveling in the mountains and lost my way. It will be dark soon and I need to find the city. Do you know which path is the right way?”

The monk looks at his a sharpie reply’s

“Any way is the correct way if you run down that way with confidence. Observe”

And the bewildered man watches as the monk uncaps his marker and throws the sharpie leaving a solid bold mark on the stone path.

“Now, this is my way.” says the monk.

The lost traveler watches closely as the monk travels on the path the sharpie just drew and continued walking. He looked over the monk’s shoulder and saw lights of the a city becoming brighter as the dusk reaches it peak hour.

The next day the sharpie monk is honored with the a medal from the elders signifying he is the embodiment of confidence and that shall be his signature trait. His insight. The topic he shall meditate on for the next 50 years. With the medal bestowed upon him, he sits on his risky cliff and meditates with the sharpie in his hands.

For this illustration I took the original image off the internet at the website:

Then added some contrasting colors, touched the tone up, and had him hold a sharpie. However, I did not add the slight glow feature around his head and shoulders. The curious tint of lighting came from the original image itself and could only really be seen once I added in the contrast and dimmed down the brightness. Maybe he really is enlightened in this state. 

Sharp Idea 32: Dont Suck

So I have come to terms with the fact that as a person, artistic abilities are not in my list of strongest capabilities. Ive known this for a while. I could look at this attribute of myself as a negative thing since advertising has a lot of art that goes into production. That was fine with me since I always found stats more interesting than opinions. Anyways, that doesn’t help me out much since this class is all about creativity and more often than not classes full of artistically inclined individuals.

But I you dont have to be artsy to be creative. Here is my art. It’s raw and lacks detail, but I am happy with it. Why? Because I was able to illustrate my point the same way an extraordinary artist would. The most frustrating thing about be in the creative industry while lacking the ability to dray is having a great idea but being unable to convey it any other ways besides words. For example, I could sit down and in detail go over every thought on the details of a creative idea but if an artist simply displayed their work my words have a higher chance of being set aside to make way for the visual beauty that has been set before them, no words required.

I’ve been self conscious about this aspect of myself for a while. What am I doing trying to gain head way in an industry with so many more qualified artists than myself? I almost considered dropping this major in strategic advertising and head towards business marketing. I am sure that I am not the only with doubts.

So those with doubts, I have used a sharpie to permanently change my outlook on this aspect of myself. Raw art, if used correctly, can illustrate an idea just as well. So her I go, using a sharpie to illustrate my self consciousness being consumed leaving me a permanently vibrant confident creative individual.

Sharp Idea 28: Motivation

Find the biggest sharpie you can. Pick it up and feel it’s weight. Light? Think again. It’s heavy. In one sharpie pen there is packed confidence. The power of the pen is evident only in a sharpie. The idea with this post would be a video where the words are swapped out to incorporate everything that is a sharpie. 

Sharp Idea 27: Motivation

Everyone needs a little bit of inspiration. Inspiration works like magic, tastes like perfection, and smells like adrenaline. When I am hit by inspiration I want to get up and feed my motivation so the ideas don’t start to starve in my mind. That’s it! Inspiration food, motivation fuel. The power to chase every impossible desire. Where does it start? How is it born? Is some other dimension living inside a work of art, spilling from the lips of people, or dripping from images that are then decoded in some viewers thoughts as food for motivation? What feeds our inspiration? It could be that our ideas lead to the immortality of us as individuals. Might we all live forever in the things we leave behind. We will all be permeant in our ideas that are born to never die. If we had the confidence to pursue those ideas that is. What else breathes confidence, lives permanently, and generates ideas better than a sharpie? Let sharpie feed your inspiration and drive your motivation with nothing less than confidence.

Sharp Idea 26: Motivation

To be in a situation where I am lost has become such a common feeling it is almost comforting. When I am lost, about what to do or where to go, at least I know I’m not charging down the wrong road. So why do people get so nervous when they are lost? They panic, cry, lose themselves, and their minds.

The problem is the future. The only reason you would be scared when you are lost is because you are afraid of what might happen. The worst situation suddenly becomes the most probable one. So how do you find comfort in being so lost? How do you get motivated to move forward when you feel like there may be nothing out there for you but the possibility of failure and only a glimmer of success? Some people might tell you to change you mind set and see only the possibility of success with only a glimmer of failure. You could try, but even then failure haunts those who are lost.

So when you are lost know that you are in a situation where all the options are out on the table. You can see them all, but you just don’t know what they if they will help you or hurt you. Confidence is key. Not the confidence to charge out into the open abyss and pray you make a splash instead of a crash, but the kind that is real. Real confidence is to knowing how to lay all your options on the table and, with the most permanent sharpie you can find, forever rid yourself of the options that can hurt you. Listen to your decisions and never waver from them.  Know that being lost is ok, being confident is key, and if you want to kill an option permanently use a sharpie.

So my thought process behind this intentional motivative piece is to use a common feeling and thoughts and turn it around to something new with the use of sharpie and, its brand, aplomb. A nice ad for this idea would best be used in a video similar to a public service ad. Indecisiveness is a common feeling with certain people, and those who lack the ability to pause and rethink, end up typically making regrettable moments, or at least moments that are quickly learned to never be repeated again. Sharpie is brought out subtly in this idea but mainly it is meant to give a confidence boost in the viewer to try and feel okay when everything seems like a jumbled mess.

Sharp Idea 24 Extreme Situations

My idea for this post was to create yet another impossible event where two sharpies come to life. They go on a romantic date and as said in the illustration confidence seems to be key to the success of this rather unusual couple. I consider this an extreme situation because the sharpies have come to life, and not only that, they are on a date with one another. The original idea came from my ‘flushing out 50 ideas list’ in my very first post to this blog. The uniqueness in this idea comes from the fact that the pens themselves have taken on the persona of what a real person should be doing in that situation. With this kind of ad, maybe it will bring self confidence to the viewer on one of their own dates or maybe its just an entertaining cartoon someone can stop and look at for a second or so.

Sharp Idea 19 Evaluate Yourself

Upon watching a Steve Harvey show there was a segment for women in the process of a weight loss program. This sparked the idea about how women go though the long challenging diet routines in order to loose weight. Remebering the complicated process and making sure you dont deviate from them is no doubt hard to do. Many women are willing to try anything that has proven to help you lose weight. One way is to record what you eat. Having a reminder of what your intake is can help you realize where your the problems lie and make you feel better and more confident in your choices and your ability to reach your goals at the end of the day.

In a possible collaboration ad between Weight Watchers and Sharpie, (or some other known weight loss company) could have many benefits to this idea.

Evaluation: The construction of the ad illustration alone took over 45 minutes on photoshop. I know this is a risky idea however could actually work for it’s selected target audience that why I believe it to be an original idea. It connects to aplomb within the post and how women would relate to the aplomb feeling you get when you reach your goal weight a the end of the process.

Illustration Cites: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/9/15/1284578640326/Fat-woman-obese-obesity-006.jpg http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/s618/orsltd1/sharpie_zps16393fa9.png

Sharp Idea 13: Be Remarkable

http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/308329/file-345177326-jpg/plastic_surgery_picture.jpg?t=1424482607693

Here’s a turning twist on how to interpret sharpies in a form of potentially a public service ad. Going along with what seems to be a profitable trend is the idea that people should be happy with themselves. Ones personal appearances, looks, and thoughts  should be nothing less than perfect whether you are short, tall, skinny, fat, or just different. Idealistically. In all reality it seems that people will go along loving themselves in increments of highs and lows like on an elevator. One minute you see yourself as flawless and the next you reconsider eating altogether and start a day diet that ends that same afternoon.

    Focusing in on those impulses, when women try to be perfect and inline with someone else’s standards, there is a taboo thought that some women find a good idea at the time but regret on the operating table. That is plastic surgery. Typically, at the time, a women might be happy to finally have her idea of the perfect chest size, facial feature, or whatever enhancement that will transform them from average to something “better”. However, you can’t help but know that sitting on the operating table there is a twinge of doubt, nervousness, and anxiety that some women might feel even earlier, like in the waiting room. What strong unwavering impulse lasts a month or more and then dissipates right at the point of no return? It is the impulse of someone who isn’t 100% positive but goes along with the operation because the situation is too far gone. Number 1 regret women have after implants is that they can never go back. Life long possibilities of her becoming prone to problems and complications that ultimately require more surgery to fix later on along with every possible consequence to this one decision rushes fast in her mind. So when is the potential point on no return? The doctor visits and uses a sharpie to draw out the lines of incision. This is when things get real. The lines have been drawn, literally.  Sharpies signal. If you aren’t confident when the sharpie is drawn on your skin, you will most likely experience regrets shortly after waking up in a new, more foreign, body.

Let sharpie be your signal. If you don’t like it in sharpie, you wont like it shortly.

http://www.tmbcosmeticsurgery.com/files/2014/08/barbie_doll.jpg

Sharp Idea 9 Collaborate

So for the next week the directive is to collaborate with someone else to make your post. I collaborated with Jenna and together we found out we both liked anime. Something about the story line in these kinds of shows, of course not all of them, seemed more intriguing than anything a live action person could ever accomplish in entertainment. Sadly, in high school we both realized that it was thought of as weird to like watching those kind of shows. However, since coming to college there is a more general acceptance of everyone’s individuality. As an even better trend, in college, there is a kind of pride that is associated with those who express their individuality.

Therefore, in our collaboration to depict our more nerd like side, we decided to create a graphically designed photo that blended her drawing skills with Photoshop. She drew two separate pictures in sharpie. One of her and one of me. After designing the words, I displayed the drawing of me on my blog and on her web site she has a similar layout but with a drawing of her in the center. To attribute to the sharpie’s brand aplomb, Jenna and I display our own confidence with our individuality by surrounding ourselves with the ‘confidence to express yourself’ with whatever it is you may like. From now on I will never be ashamed to admit that I like to watch anime.

Sharp Idea 6 Tell A Story

The Sharpie Math Test

Above is the link to a story of a student who bravely tackles his math test with a sharpie. Everyone has taken a math test before and in order to use a sharpie one must be confident in what they are writing. Of course I am no video editor but the idea is conveyed through this rougher example. The camera follows the student and his journey before taking his test. Supposedly the student is to portraying confidence and pride instead of nervousness for his test. The suspense music is meant to build the anticipation because viewers wouldn’t know what happens in the end. Overall, sharpie is the permanent marker that only those with aplomb may use. At the end of the video the student, Zach, receives an A.