"Youth" (A bit of a rant, a bit of reality)

Ad agencies are all over the "youth" because we're in the social networks, the digital age and the interactivity of world, and more specifically advertising. 

It's in our books. It's in our minds. It is all one thing. It is so silly for students to have a separate section for "digital" work. It's integrated into our campaigns, so why would we separate those from the whole concept.

Awesome agencies should not be and hopefully do not want a book or website separated between traditional and digital. (And for the record, I don't think that Print is dead, but I strongly believe that it has to get a lot more special and elite.

Social networks follow a similar story. I connect with people instantly. E-mail is almost as outdated for me as the USPS. Immediacy is valuable.

It is a way to truly stay connected with so many more people. It makes our world entirely smaller than before. I can see and talk to almost anyone I've met and cared to keep in touch with around the world. It's a part of my life as much as a rolodex was a part of yours--if you have and even know what it is. I've never owned a physical rolodex.

A Paradox of reality

If asking oneself "Am I dreaming?" in a dream proves that one is, what does it prove in waking life? (Quoted from Hutton)

We live in two realities, more if we are lucky. (Or on drugs, which personally I don't think is lucky, but that the experience may be.) Society allows for one reality yet people live and dream in two. I wake up and wonder why the waking world is more important than the dreaming one. Physical and monetary reasons aside, if I had to chose one, I'd chose dream. I don't mean to sound anti-social, and I suppose the dream world could not exist with out the experiences of the waking world and vice versa, but again, if forced to chose one, I'd pick dreamland. I fly. I am giant. I am tiny. I'm in love. I have fun. I can surf. I can ski. I can fall, yet I feel no pain. But I can wake up screaming. Now here's another point. Waking up from a nightmare, essentially rescues you from the perils of the dream. If I couldn't wake up, if my "waking world" didn't exist, would the perils continue and feel as though they feel in the waking world?? Because then I'd have to rethink my decision. A big deciding factor for the dream choice was the escape of physical and interpersonal pain and suffering. I suppose this supports the basis for Hutton's paradox.

Paradox of Hedonism

Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. (Quoted from Victor Frankl)

Hedonism is an illusion. Hedonism is an allusion. It alludes one to an illusion. Pursuing happiness will only make a person pessimistic. Pessimism detracts from present happiness.

If I were a BIG IDEA... & venting and rambling.

I pursue advertising through art direction and design with so much love and passion. It is the job I knew I would always have since I was 13 years old. However, the concept of "making it big" didn't yet apply to anything I thought.

My talent and passion for dancing and choreography equalled those for advertising. I have a stronger sense of confidence on stage with myself and my choreography and moves. A performance of a piece that communicates flows. I translate this feeling of expression to my art direction. My page becomes a stage. When I design, I feel like I am a bit freer, like I'm dancing.

Dance is advertising in 3D. Well, it could be. It should be. Dance is an untapped advertising media that I am going to use to create the bridge that can connect my disconnected loves of my life. They're both so similarly connected through the arts and emotions, performing to an audience to make them feel something.

A "BIG IDEA" opens a fresh perspective. Some will love, some will hate, but dance is a old-new way and venue for people to connect emotionally and more personally to people. I'll take the slivers in my feet to bring this idea to life.

As valuable and intriguing digital media is, the minute we stop speaking to and seeing people, our businesses will be shipped to places in India and China where they can write and produce our "digital" world because we will be so lost from our "original world".

I'm still QR Coding on a lot of ads, using e-paper, OLED paint on walls, inventing apps and widgets, but I can see down the road the raw fine beauty in what will be left of the human-made, tangible world. I wont slip out of the "know" of what's happening on the digital scene. But I'll also rise from the cluttered and competitive screen media with ideas and executions that reach people more humanly.

I will maintain a very niche market of personality, art and emotion and tangible advertising. Person to person advertising is not as mass of a market as the screen, but I think that's where the uniqueness and beauty revives itself and becomes cherished.

When the world is fully digitized, there probably wont have been any human contact with any of our products. I think there will be a resurgence of human-made, tangible, craft and that it will bear so much capture to the gems of the pieces that innovate in a different direction.

When I unite my two passions, they will flow like high and low pressure zones coming together and forming a tornado. One powerful force created despite its danger in uncertainty.

My favorite quote. About success. By Emerson.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; this is to have succeeded.

Pace

I don't believe pacing yourself will prevent burnout. I think pacing is a quick way to become uninspired and therefore depressed. Remembering to surround myself with a constantly changing river of creativity not only helps me to avoid burnout, but helps me to push myself. I hope I never pace.

Sense

Thrown pennies become wishes in wells but only amount to two cents when representing something of truth or substance. Ironic.

Relationships Explained Through Punctuation

All relationships feel complicated at one point or another. And if it doesn't, I personally believe that that just makes thing complicated. So there, all relationships feel complicated at one point or another. Period. I use punctuation for my relationships to determine their finality, their unknown and such as follows.

Period. A period goes at the end of a relationship that is done. Over. Complete. Will never return to. Should never return to, because if you did, it would just end in a bigger, more dramatic period. Don't go back to it. Period.

Comma. Commas belong at the end of a relationship where you didn't break up, are on perfectly fine terms, but circumstances separates you from your partner and you don't know if it's worth the full semicolon yet or not. Commas are unbalanced and leave partners hanging.

Semicolon. Semicolons are a happy conjunction of two pieces of a relationship that was on hold for a while; however, never on bad terms.

Colon. A colon is a cheated continuation of a period. It is going nowhere because one side wants and needs it more than the other side. At least one side cannot stand independently of itself and requires the support of the other, which does not a healthy relationship make. It's like cheating death by adding another dot. Not fair and it won't end well. You cheated and cheaters don't win.

Question-mark. This one is mainly reserved for first time daters because a first relationship is magical, it is filled with hope, answers and many questions without answers, leaving one or both parties inquisitive, yet unable to answer either partner's question, small or large, short term or long term, menial or philosophical. This relationship is best left unanswered by each other. Move on to find answers. While curiosity inspires growth, it also killed the cat.

Ellipses. Ellipses are for the Romeo & Juliet type, similar to the comma, but not quite as hopeful. This one has three kisses of relationship death, not just one. The "maybe someday" line is the biggest load of nothing. The indefinite nature of this piece of punctuation suggests hope; however, this hope is more often than not, one-sided. It's a, "He's Just Not That Into You" moment and he drew 3 balls because he couldn't use his own two balls (if this is a guy putting the ellipses into the relationship) to draw only one, and end it.

This may all sound very cynical. Maybe it is? But instead, I believe that a relationship that works like everyone dreams and hopes (and they do exist, my parents are proof) doesn't require the punctuation I've described because the ride never stops, it may slow, hang by a comma now and then, but the one we all dream for ends in !