I just saw the singer of [...]]]> The opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup is taking place right now, and it’s reminiscent of the large-scale ceremonies I remember from the Vancouver and Beijing games. The stadium is ginormous and hundreds of Africans, primarily women, are performing synchronized dancing as performers do songs blended together in medleys.

I just saw the singer of a classic Ghanaian group called Osibisa perform “Sunshine Day.” I still remember this first time I heard that incredible positive funky rock song. It reminded me of the anthem quality in the positive rock/reggae crossover songs by Bob Marley. One of the astonishing images from the first part of the ceremony was the giant patchwork quilt that spread out on the floor of the stadium – in the shape of the African continent. And then slowly the other continents slowly formed around Africa as the participants roamed the floor. The quilt was a beautiful metaphor and a stunning visual. Watch for it in highlights on TV and video.

One of the amazing things that I just discovered is that K’Naan’s “Wavin’ Flag” is apparently NOT an official song for the World Cup. I think the Canadian media and World Cup sponsor Coca Cola have slid this in by the backdoor. In fact, if you look at the Wikipedia page and read some news stories on World Cup music, you’ll discover that the official song is called “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” and it will be performed by Colombia’s Shakira, with a South African group called Freshlyground at the closing ceremony. Even the official “anthem” is by R. Kelly.

Interesting. Seems somehow the hype machine of both Coca-Cola and the music business have blended fact and fiction, and as is very common these days —  often a commercial branding initiative with TV commercials and catchy music will blend the line between culture and commerce. Have we been duped? Or are we just dumb consumers? Many reputable publications, including Exclaim Magazine, and the NME from Britain, misreported this story.

I really like K’Naan’s “Wavin’ Flag,” and I had the pleasure of teaching it to a group of LINC ESL students a week ago. It really is an amazing song – capturing a certain momentum that K’Naan has been building for the last few years. I downloaded “Soapbox” and a half dozen other songs from eMusic about 3 years ago. The kid from the rugged Somalian capital Mogadishu whose family now calls Toronto home, has crafted a truly epic, anthemic song. the song however is Coke’s official song, and I’ve just witnessed it in the background of commercial spot on the CBC broadcast.

I have to admit I’m mildly disappointed. YouTube has a video labelled “Official World Cup theme song” and the buzz has all been building toward K’Naan = World Cup 2010. I thought it was a great fit. Apparently, Coca Cola did too but even asked K’Naan to modify his lyrics, which they found to be dark and dour (and which I celebrated as an echo of the beautiful but plain-spoken lyrics of Bob Marley, see “Buffalo Soldier” which K’Naan references in his song).

This is the latest from Exclaim’s website (other sites including Dose are reporting this too so hopefully it’s factual):

In a recent interview with Billboard, it was revealed that before the song could be used by the soft drink giant, Coke asked K’naan to rewrite the lyrics, which called Somalia “a violent prone, poor people zone,” referring to its people “struggling, fighting to eat.” K’naan complied, and in the interview, defended his choice before anyone could cry “sellout.”

“I saw it as an opportunity to reach more people,” he said. “I don’t work for Coke or anything; what I do is my music. This was a really great opportunity for them to use my song, without compromising my integrity as a musician. This is what I write, these are the songs I make. I’m happy about it.”

What about the games and the sport you ask?

Well, as you may know this blog is about people, culture, language and arts. So, in short, I am not a huge soccer fan, but I will tune in to a few World Cup games. Like most things in my life these days, I’d rather play and participate than watch. As a spectator I hope to catch some of the magic of South Africa, from the people to the music to the other aspects of African culture which hopefully will shine and benefit from this spectacle.I with the people of South Africa well and hope this World Cup is truly on the positive side of the boon/bust ledger. I also hope the platinum selling “Wavin’ Flag” will be a boon to K’Naan and remain an inspiration and beacon of hope, and not just a mass-marketed jingle for a soft drink multinational.

Recommended Viewing:

Look up the CBC “Q” video on YouTube for an excellent acoustic “unplugged” style rendition of K’naan performing “Wavin’ Flag.”

In 1996, with the [...]]]> It’s amazing to think about the importance of Photoshop in my life. As a graphic designer I have fired up Photoshop nearly every day for the last ten years, and for a few years prior to that, friends were doing the “firing up” and I was just along for the amazing ride.

In 1996, with the help of my friend Pete, I started designing logos for t-shirts. My first design was a pure bite of the Kiss logo – my brainstorm was that “kiss” (pronounced) backwards was “sick.” And so Sick was clothing was born. I took a paycheck and optimistically printed 100 t-shirts with my Sick-Kiss hybrid logo, including Gene staring out from the middle. One night Pete and I went down to Kinko’s to scan a Guitar Player magazine and a half hour later we were deep in an early version of Photoshop, chopping up the lettering to create my first logo.

I created many of my early logos with Photoshop, somehow never needing to get anything generated with Illustrator. I suppose many designs were based either on photographs, scanned images, hand drawn imagery and simple shapes or text.

About 6 months ago I got my hands of the Adobe Master Suite CS4 and I’ve spent a hundred hours or more in that version of PS. Just a few weeks ago CS5 was released and it looks amazing. I am teaching an online course in Graphic Design and I’m encouraging my students to download the trial – a behemoth at 1 GB (includes option to install “enhanced” version). On the preview page there is are some  small flash movies that show off some killer new functions, including HDR photo creation, complex selections and content-aware fill (check this last one out — you can erase an object in your picture and the program automatically fills in the background like the object was never there). This is too amazing. I may have to check out the trial version too.

Layers Magazine has an in-depth article with interviews with some Photoshop developers:

http://layersmagazine.com/photoshop-turns-20.html

The Contact Photography Festival just passed and my blog’s Google rank was higher than EYE weekly magazine and both the Facebook page for the fest and a page in Yahoo Business. The [...]]]> Can my site rank higher than Facebook and Yahoo? Yes, in the right circumstances, and with a terrifically crafted post on a specific subject.

The Contact Photography Festival just passed and my blog’s Google rank was higher than EYE weekly magazine and both the Facebook page for the fest and a page in Yahoo Business. The Google result for “Contact Photography Festival” placed me on the third page of results (out of millions) and confirmed to me that my online marketing strategies are paying off.

People do come to my site, read my articles and check out my videos. The question is: “How to convert that into something tangible”? You’ll also note that my blog contains no advertising of any sort, so some might ask the more elementary question “Why blog?”

It’s interesting to mull the answers and talk about what motivates me and how I’m marketing myself on the WWW.

Motivations to Blog

First of all I am an expressive person and I’ve always liked writing. Designing a blog was fun and graphic design is my main focus, but I’m interesting in reaching a wide audience and exposing people to interesting people, places, and events, and engaging people in issues I care about. If you check out my site, you’ll see I have postings on a variety of topics but they fall mainly under these 10 categories: art, design, Toronto, film, books, blogging, WordPress, education, school, workshops etc. I write about what I know and what I’m interested in.

Recently I had an interesting experience while taking an informational interview with a design industry person many years my junior. After I introduced myself and my wide background of work, the designer took a deep breath and offered up this comment: “I think you have to ask yourself, ‘Do you want to express yourself or do you want to communicate?’” Later I had a chance to mull it over. I realized that I was doing both. I understand how communication works in the digital age and I’ve capitalized on it — and I express myself through my art and my blog (and other sites).

Represent Yourself – Online Identity and Branding

“Whether you realize it or not, you have an online “brand,” too. Do you have a Facebook or MySpace account? Do you comment on blogs? Have you tried out Twitter? When you post content, engage others or share information about yourself on the Web, you are creating a unique identity—branding yourself, in a sense.”

- Patti Church / Whyhire.me

In an article in Career Options magazine, which is targeted toward Canadian college students, Ms. Church describes trends in branding and marketing and puts forth the argument that we all need to fine tune our online brands, because if we don’t, others will do it for us. She quotes the amazing statistic that a giant majority of employers will google a job seeker, and often they find publicly accessible web pages, such as Facebook, Google or blogs and forums. Read Patti’s terrific article at: http://careeroptionsmagazine.com/creating-your-online-brand/

In “The Long Tail,” one of the more interesting business books of the last decade, Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine analyzes trends related to business and the rise of the collaborative community-based Internet. There are two things he writes about which I find relevant and interesting. One, products are increasingly being made and distributed by prosumers (yes – it implies a combination of professional /producer and consumer) — regular folks who take it upon themselves to avail themselves of some semi-professional gear and produce hi-quality art, music, books and utilize the digital tools of our age to get their message out. An important chapter takes a look at the “Democratization of the tools of Production.” Anyone today can develop their own product and marketing materials – and online aggregators like Amazon and  iTunes allow us to pitch our product to the whole world. Two, a smart person can develop what might be called “traction” or “cachet” – a certain respect and professional prestige which, if it doesn’t directly earn money (and it can if you publish a book for instance), can indirectly boost your career by opening up opportunities to you in your industry. Some speaking engagements might be non-paying but that presentation, like the blog entry, impresses upon your peers that you have a valuable contribution to make. Convert your reputation, in other words, into professionally-related reward.

You are a product, a brand. What are you doing to promote yourself? Are you pro-actively managing your online identity? If you build a website or blog, Google will find it and rush your personal page to the top of the results page. this ensures you present the most professional side of yourself when the world comes calling through digital age channels.

Build it and They Will Come

If you put a modicum of time and energy into a blog you shall reap some reward. If you pay attention to certain practises and principles then it should bring you traffic and reach a lot of people. I have some basic recommendations and they can all easily fit into a summary I could just describe as “Google-ize” yourself. Are your meta tags tweaked? Do you even know what I’m talking about? Here are some tips to help you get going.

Google / Search Engines – Make sure you update your site frequently, use relevant keywords in your headings and page titles, and always be sure to add media to your posts and pages. I am convinced that much of my success has come from exploiting tools like Google Maps, YouTube, social media websites etc – in part to diversify the kinds of content on my site, and also to simply provide links back to my content. Your site probably has the ability to put “meta tags” into the source code – meta tags includes areas like “description” and “keywords” – this helps search engines understand your site and what it’s all about.

Overall there is probably no substitute for good craft – take some time for design and write well. Or hire someone like me to get the job done.

Thanks for reading!

Mike

mike | strongandfree.ca

Green Screens presents WATERLIFE

Directed by Kevin McMahon, 2009, 109 minutes.

Tuesday June 1 at 7pm

FREE

NFB Cinema – 150 John St (at Richmond St [...]]]> This movie looks like a “must see.” The director, Kevin McMahon has directed some amazing documentaries, including one of my favorites, “McLuhan’s Wake” – a doc on the Canadian media communications theorist Marshall McLuhan.

Green Screens presents WATERLIFE

Directed by Kevin McMahon, 2009, 109 minutes.

Tuesday June 1 at 7pm

FREE

NFB Cinema – 150 John St (at Richmond St W), Toronto

Waterlife follows the epic cascade of the Great Lakes from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean, telling the story of the last huge supply of fresh water on Earth. Filled with fascinating characters and stunning imagery, Waterlife is a cinematic poem about the beauty of water and the dangers of taking it for granted.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Tony Maas, Director of the Freshwater Program at WWF-Canada; Dr. Romila Verma, CIELAP Research Associate, Watershed Management and Climate Change; and Hilary Van Welter, Director of Social Innovation, Windfall Ecology Centre.

Green Screens partners films from the NFB with experts and panellists selected by the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy. If you are interested in the environment, Green Screens will entertain and inform you.

For more information, please call 416-973-3012 or visit:

http://www.NFB.ca/mediatheque

http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/mediatheque/?lg=eng

This year’s theme is “Pervasive Influence: Exploring the social and political consequences of the medium of photography, [...]]]> The annual Contact Photography Festival is taking place through the month of May. Unlike the other famous Toronto festivals, including HotDocs and TIFF, this one is completely free – so there are no excuses – check some stuff out!

This year’s theme is “Pervasive Influence: Exploring the social and political consequences of the medium of photography, in a world devoted to the image.”

The following is from the Contact website:

“…In this era of instant information the image is stimulating unprecedented change in the way we communicate… In 1964 Marshall McLuhan wrote of the photograph as “the brothel without walls”. He described photographs as “dreams that money can buy” which could be “hugged and thumbed more easily than public prostitutes.” If we consider his metaphor within today’s global culture rife with image saturation, is the illusion images create now preferable to reality? …Is its ability to convey meaning now diluted by the widespread dissemination of images?

CONTACT 2010 will consider the ways in which photography informs and transforms human behavior. The festival will recognize the influence of Marshall McLuhan, on the 30th anniversary year of his death. We will present images that examine connections between mass media, advertising, art and photography.”

Primary Exhibitions include:

The Brothel Without Walls – U of T Arts Centre

Susan Anderson, Evan Baden, Douglas Coupland, Jessica Dimmock, Marina Gadonneix, Clunie Reid, Stefan Ruiz, Joachim Schmid, Christopher Wahl
http://scotiabankcontactphoto.com/primary-exhibitions/182

Media satirist Barbara Kruger — AGO – Art Gallery of Ontario – installation
http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=2962693

Toronto Star Recommended exhibits by writer Murray Whyte
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/whatson/article/801893–contact-festival-plenty-of-eye-candy-in-the-brothel-without-walls

Murray Whyte’s recommendations (first 3):

1. The Mechanical Bride, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art: The festival is heavy on Marshall McLuhan this year — the exhibition title is borrowed from the legendary media theorist’s book of the same name — and, in a nutshell, tries to embody his remarkably prescient notion that photography was being enslaved by an advertising industry amping up seductive lifestyle appeals as a way to push product, with the female form as the main lure. Imagine that. Here, 60 years on, artists like LaChapelle, with a disturbingly robotic image of Lady Gaga, and Dana Claxton, who filters the appropriative gloss of marketing through her lens of First Nations’ experience, underscore McLuhan’s role as a soothsayer, proving him right, only more so. May 1

2. The Brothel Without Walls, University of Toronto Art Centre: Further on the McLuhan theme — in his landmark 1964 book Understanding Media, he called photographs exactly that, and “dreams money can buy”— this show includes work by, among others, Douglas Coupland, Jessica Dimmock and Evan Baden, whose images of amateur online exhibitionists seem to take McLuhan’s notion, of an artificial reality spurred by the easy ubiquity of picture-making, to its logical extreme. May 1

3. Untitled (It), Art Gallery of Ontario, Dundas St. façade: For decades — long before it became a de rigueur street-art standard—Barbara Kruger’s withering satires of advertising in the public realm made her an art-world superstar. Kruger’s iconic aesthetic of text and found images speaks advertising’s language of vapid non-sequitur-ese so fluently, at first glance, as to be near-indistinguishable; a double-take yields results both hilarious and sobering. Here, she festoons the AGO’s 90-metre-long Dundas St. glass awning with a new work commissioned specifically for the festival — a coup

http://iam.strongandfree.ca/blog/free-online-course-diy-graphic-design-and-marketing-july-5-aug-9

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Mike Simpson is offering a free online course. The topic is “Do It Yourself” Graphics and Marketing. iDIY and uCan too! You are invited to participate! (Printable PDF Version).

If you have an [...]]]> I am offering this course again soon – please contact me if you are interested. Here’s the most current post:

http://iam.strongandfree.ca/blog/free-online-course-diy-graphic-design-and-marketing-july-5-aug-9

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Mike Simpson is offering a free online course. The topic is “Do It Yourself” Graphics and Marketing. iDIY and uCan too! You are invited to participate! (Printable PDF Version).

If you have an entrepreneurial streak or have always wanted to learn a little about graphics, websites/blogs, or multimedia (audio/video) then this course may be the perfect opportunity to “get your feet wet.”

Class Level / Objectives

The course is targeted to beginners and intermediates. The class will last 6 weeks and be done online – where we will have the opportunity to share our discoveries and our work via chat, message boards, and blog postings. How far you go, how much you create is up to you – everyone will be expected to contribute to the process by creating a simple website and posting their work and comments.

At the simple end of the “prior experience” range, beginners or “newbies” will be encouraged to edit photos for an “e-card” or create a graphically-pleasing PowerPoint presentation (too often an oxymoron!). Intermediate students will develop vector illustrations or perhaps a video podcast. Many of the tools are free and the only limit with be your time and imagination!

Class “Time”

All of your work is done, for the most part, asynchronously. This means on Monday we have a virtual class – I upload documents and instructions. Students ask questions. We “meet” virtually for a few hours. However, if you are busy, you can log in and do your work anytime in the following week. When you study is up to you.

Class Difficulty

This class is ideal for beginner and intermediates. You must have fairly strong general computer proficiency and some curiosity about creative work done via computer. Please don’t be intimidated by the idea of having a blog – it is simply a website page where we can share our work and the tools are easy to use (WordPress for example, has an interface that is similar to Microsoft Word).

iDIY course overview:

Week 1 – Introduction to course and materials / create blog (a simple place to post and share your work)

We will go over a) DIY philosophy and practice, b) computer setup / operations and c) software options / blog setup.

Week 2 - Photo-editing and Basic Graphics

We look at design and color theory, essential photo editing techniques, and file formats for print / web (i.e. bitmap vs vector image, jpeg vs png).

Week 3 – Print vs. Web – Getting your message out

Overview of 21st century marketing and the history of self-publishing.

Exploration of marketing options – from brochure / business card to website /blog.

Week 4 – Multimedia – Audio and Video

Do you want to clean up the crackly sound in your family’s home videos? Want to upload a promotional video of your business or community group to YouTube?

The fundamentals of audio and video editing will be reviewed.

Week 5 – Independent Study

Students work on projects and review progress with peers / teacher.

Week 6 – Exhibition of Work and Evaluations of Course

Each student posts their best work to a gallery page. We meet in an online chat / message board to share and critique.

Students submit course evaluation and comments to Mike.

QUESTIONS? Want to “get tech”?

Please contact me to register.

Thanks,

Mike Simpson

mike | strongandfree.ca

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About Mike

Mike Simpson has developed his own websites and marketing materials since 1996 when he founded a street wear company. He made clothing that sold in a dozen stores around Toronto, published small magazines, and developed skills in graphic design and marketing. More recently Mike has worked as an ESL teacher and currently leads teachers in workshops that explore the use of computers and the internet in teaching/learning. Mike is writing a book on DIY graphics and media, business philosophy, history and techniques.

About DIY

“DIY” has been a motivating concept and practice for independent-minded self-starters since the 1970s. Its origins were in music / lifestyle sub-cultures such as American and British punk. These artists, musicians, and publishers founded their own small businesses and established communities that organized their own concerts, books and magazines, and clubs / retail stores (sometimes in the form of “cooperatives”). DIY has since been co-opted by corporations like HomeDepot but the essential ideas and core values of independent spirit and self-reliance have not changed. It’s an exciting time! The 21st century is the age of communication tools like social media and blogs – never before have computers and the internet so easily enabled regular people to get stuff done themselves.

Located at John and Richmond St. in downtown Toronto, the National Film Board’s Mediatheque centre is an inspiring place. You can check out all kinds of short films, animations and documentaries. Once I took a group of students there for a field trip. The presenter was amazing – it was one of my favorite all-time [...]]]>

Located at John and Richmond St. in downtown Toronto, the National Film Board’s Mediatheque centre is an inspiring place. You can check out all kinds of short films, animations and documentaries. Once I took a group of students there for a field trip. The presenter was amazing – it was one of my favorite all-time field trips. The staff are always friendly and helpful.

One of the main reasons to go to the NFB Mediatheque site is to check out the viewing stations. I have taken my students there just for that purpose on a number of occasions. Recently I watched an animated short, “The Necktie,” that’s also available online. In fact, the NFB are digitizing most of their catalogue and making it available via their website. Another favorite is called “Film Club,” by Cyrus Sundar Singh. It’s about a 20-year reunion of former childhood friends who were immigrants and in grade 8 banded together in an after-school film club. So far this title is NOT online – so get thee down to the Mediatheque and watch it!

Check out:

Mediatheque
http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/mediatheque/

The Necktie – animated short – 12 mins.
http://www.nfb.ca/film/necktie/

Flemingdon Park – Global Village – documentary – 47 mins
http://www.nfb.ca/film/flemingdon_park_the_global_village

“Across Cultures” – NFB clips from 60 different films!
http://www3.nfb.ca/acrosscultures/toutvoir.php?print

Mediatheque
150 John Street
Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3C3
416-973-3012