Leading Aged Services Australia (LASA) recently came to us with a request to redesign their Aged Care news magazine, Fusion. They had a template done that wasn’t fitting the bill, and with our previous collaboration on brand identity, it was clear we’d have a strong understanding of the audience and purpose.

My first stop was to run though the old image archives and assemble pictures that showcased older people in positive moods and environments. I discarded any reference to what had been done, went back to basics and began with the styles laid down in their basic brand style guide.

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For many of us, public speaking may be a daunting experience. Perhaps it conjures awkward memories of high-school assemblies, or even that nightmare where you forget to get dressed before leaving the house in the morning.

But this need not be the case.

Public speaking is an opportunity. It’s a chance to engage directly with an audience, a chance to be honest and share real experiences, to define what you stand for. It’s a chance to be creative, to connect with people.

We are very fortunate at the agency to write speeches and produce presentations for remarkable people. Peter McVeigh is one of them. At 20 years old, he is the youngest person in the world to complete the Great Himalaya Trail, the longest and highest alpine walking track in the world which winds its way between the tallest mountains and most remote communities on the planet. It covers more than 4,500km from Namche Barwa in Tibet to Nanga Parbat in Pakistan.

Peter’s story is inspirational, and we enjoyed telling it. Here’s an excerpt from his speech.

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It can be easy for people from different arenas to talk about design and completely misunderstand each other. Why? Because the concept of design is so wide and varied that the crux of understanding between players is often knowing the broad scope of the word’s definition.

Here’s two examples:

Architectural design refers to the planning and construction of buildings and physical structures. User-centered design is a field within digital interface design where the needs of the end user are given direct attention during the creation of the interface.

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“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.”

Charles Eames – legendary architect, filmmaker, graphic and industrial designer.

A brand can be visually expressed in many different ways. The most common and arguably the most revered is the logo.

Of late, logotyping has broken out of the strict rules of conformity that once shackled the discipline. The static logotypes we’re used to are making way for a new era of dynamic logotyping. In layman’s terms, this means the image can be changed – even animated - but still maintain the visual identity characterising the company or brand. The variations can be in colour palette or structure but never both.

Given that the definition of a logotype is ‘a graphic element which uniquely identifies corporations, products, services, institutions or events in order to publicly differentiate the owner of the logotype from other entities’ it’s interesting no one thought of it earlier! Keywords here are ‘uniquely identifies’ and ‘publicly differentiate’.

A pioneering example of dynamic logotyping is the work done for the MIT Media Lab.

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Prominent American designer come writer Frank Chimero raised support on crowd-funding site Kickstarter to fund a new book The Shape of Design. His target was $27,000 to cover the self-publishing expenses – he surpassed that in the first day and went on to raise over $100,000.

The Shape of Design was released in May and is being endorsed worldwide. It doesn’t teach us how to design; rather,  it focuses on why we are designing in the first place. It looks at the relationship of client to designer and the important roles each plays to create a successful outcome.

Earlier this month I was priveledged to attend a Portable Presents talk featuring fearless Frank. Inspired, upon exiting the lecture I took hold of pen and paper and furiously scribbled some notes, determined to record my thoughts. Here they are.

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Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colours, to your theme‘s HTML.

My inspiration to start a tumblr blog came after seeing my friend Toms blog. He has a “photoblog” containing an eclectic mix of imagery covering everything from food, landscapes and cars. The images are mostly found from other tumblr blogs or from the web. He has mixed in a bit of his own photography as well. Tom has amassed over 5000 followers in two years of “tumbling.”

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The door closes and the little bell rings. I leap to my feet. ‘You left your handprint on his back,’ I say.

‘I know,’ says my mother. ‘And I’ll never forget the pleasure it gave me.’

From Carry Me Down by MJ Hyland.

In his book Status Anxiety, Alain de Botton explores the importance of good fortune in the lives of successful people. He questions the commonly held belief that ‘you make your own luck’. Elements of chance so often have a role to play in the careers of star businessmen and politicians. Not that you’ll hear them admit it.

You don’t make luck. It happens. The only part you can play is to provide the opportunity and space in your life for luck to play its role.

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Great story telling, in any context, is the most effective means of gripping many people and moving them to do something or behave in a certain way.

• Telling a story to my two year old is often about getting her to f$*&ing sleep (thanks Noni) but mostly about seeing her rapture and joy in make-believe.
• Telling a story at work is more about motivating staff, energising collaborators, beating a path to a known destination.
• I MC’d a wedding not so long ago. That piece of story-telling was designed to get 120 people laughing but a little teary too at well chosen moments. Mostly laughing. At the groom’s expense.

Thanks to YouTube and Vimeo, the short web video has become a dominant medium for story telling.

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Last month, Rhod wrote a piece on fundraising within the aged care sector. Part 1 focused mainly on the organic, blood-sweat-tears approach to successful fundraising. Here in Part 2, I’ll be focusing on how to make the most of a range of online tools available.

The main message and overall moral of Part 1′s story is that people are more likely to donate – even in times of recession, if there’s a storytelling element. This key element also applies to healthy online fundraising practice.

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In the world of PR, everyone is fighting for the same space. You choose a publication based on the target audience but, realistically, if there’s only one issue per month and the section is filling up – you need to create a story that stands out.

It is much the same with advertising. Connecting with the audience is a complex balance of variables which contribute to the effectiveness of an advert, whether it’s on television, radio, in print or online.

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