Countless hours as a pixel pusher can have painful repercussions on one’s limbs. Continuous use of a mouse can cause repetitive stress injuries and even carpal tunnel syndrome – due to the unnatural position of the wrist and tension in the muscles used to grip and move the cumbersome little  robotic rodent.

Thankfully, technology provides us with a variety of solutions to ease those aching appendages whilst increasing productivity. With the proliferation of touch and multi touch devices, users are becoming accustomed to a variety of input methods. I used to suffer painful aches in my mouse elbow until I made the transition to a drawing tablet several years ago.

Though the learning curve may seem daunting at first, once you have mastered the drawing tablet, it’s hard to imagine ever going back to using a conventional mouse.

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Since its launch in 2010, Michelle Bridges’ online fitness platform, ’12 Week Body Transformation’ (or 12WBT to its friends) has been responsible for helping Australians lose over 400,000 kgs and make Michelle Bridges a bucket load of cash.

An integrated social media strategy has a large role to play in its success. (The Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation Facebook page is the 16^th most popular Facebook page in Australia with close to 500,000 fans).

The 12WBT web presence consists of its:

• Web platform (with paid subscription required to access to most content)
• Facebook page
• Twitter feed (run by Michelle)
• Pintrest board
• YouTube Channel

This is an exemplar in best practice social media and the reasons for its success are applicable to all organisations. Here are a number of reasons why close to 1 in 40 Australians are connected to Michelle Bridges’ feeds.

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The fundamental purpose of language is to convey meaning. Language is instrumental in the human ability to articulate and express thought because it underpins and limits the ideas which individuals are capable of formulating.

George Orwell’s renowned dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty Four encapsulates the power of language to mould perceptions. Through his well-developed creation of Newspeak, Orwell illustrates that language can be wrought to intentionally sanitise and dilute the real meanings of words, and discriminately gate-keep information. Following a similar vein, Australian Barrister Julian Burnside suggests that if you prod the media’s smoky world of ambiguities, and misinformation, you will find:

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Digital typography since the dot com revolution.

Seven years ago, Oliver Reichensten wrote:

Don’t tell us to adjust the font size. We don’t want to change our browser settings every time we visit a website!

A year ago, Erik Spiekermann tweeted:

If you want good type on Retina displays, stop discussing hinting et al. Just search for faces that happen to look good. Like the old days.

Last month, John Gruber said:

If you want to see the future of software UI design, look to the history of print design.

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I take my work practice seriously. I can’t help it. I’ve always been a conscientious guy who tries his best every time. My mum says that when I was six months old, I could pick up single rice bubbles with my thumb and third finger. I like to think this was the beginning of my talent for ‘attention to detail’. Pedant!

But every talent has its shadow side. I have to admit that my talent for seeing significance in the mundane can sometimes override an ability to judge effort against the ‘bigger picture’ and the practice of getting stuck in and iterating.

This insight came to mind I when read a little story on one of serial-entrepreneur, Derek Siver’s, book reviews yesterday, which I’ll paraphrase in full…

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It passed in a flash. It was great, it was hard, it was 2012.

Here is our definitive list of highlights, best books and music of 2012 and our predicted trends for 2013.

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With numerous projects still in progress, I thought I’d digress from showing work we’ve completed here at Ellis Jones and share thoughts on one of my favourite designers: Fuel.

Back of the library, Queensland College of Art, 1995, running through pages of any and all design magazines I could get my hands on. I remember coming across work by a bunch of London design students collaborating under the moniker ‘Fuel’ (fuel for the fire, a kind of hunger, they said) and producing these strange, unaesthetic posters; bludgeoning together photocopied images, bad type and crude slang.

It was punk anti-design and, being a young kid in quiet ultra-suburban Brisbane, I found it difficult to understand this angry British sensibility but couldn’t stop looking at their work.

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A picture is worth a thousand words but, in this age of tweets and bites, we can’t handle a thousand words – we’re a ‘one pager’ kind of society.

Witness the rise of infographics where images can explain a journal’s worth of information, a novella no less, on topics as broad as voter movements and home improvements. You name it, we’re visualising it.

Then again, some pictures say just a few words, only so much more beautifully than a line of text on a page. And then there are font faces that are so perfect in combination, they become a picture all of themselves.

Design is visual communication. Without imagery to embolden or spearhead your message, you are lessening the chance your story will be heard. People are fundamentally, viscerally, excited by pictures.

We decided long ago to build an integrated marketing and communication service that could conceive and execute grand concepts. One known for creating memorable experiences.

Without design, we would never get there.  That’s why Callum Flack owns the northern end of the workspace – surrounded by pads, pens, paints and cables – ever thoughtful behind the smoking Mac.

So, here’s a little picture show. Enjoy a few months on our endless search for authentic visual narrative.

Recently, I was invited to watch a photo shoot of a dear friend being reinvented as a pin-up era-esque mermaid.

She didn’t have to do a thing, other than put her game face on and perform like any glamour model or actress in the 1940′s would…(see, dreams can be realised any day of the week).

The shoot’s director, Cheech Sanchez, known for her love of Rockabilly, tattoos and pin-up modelling (preferably all together) is a photographer, designer and marketer who also won the 2011 Australian National Pin-Up title.

Together with her make up artist, Sanchez created a scene complete with costume, an Ariel style red mane, props and even…. a storyline.

And the story went a little bit like this:

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We recently completed our first annual report for the season: Citywide’s. This year’s report had depth of concept, using imagery, infographics and a compelling narrative to convey the theme, “empowered, engaged, driven”.

We gave direction for photographer, Simon Birch, to compile a series of images from over almost 20 locations around Victoria and represent the three Citywide divisions (Infrastructure, Open Space & Environmental) at work in the community. And we were not only gaining image assets for the report but also revitalising important brand resources to last Citywide’s needs for the next year. Now, where and when the occasion presents, Citywide’s image resources will enable fast, quality turnaround for brand communications.

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