Jack’s Whiteboard

musings of a visual thinker and unremitting creative

Having Creative Kids And Grandkids

EVERYDAY I FEEL BLESSED to be able to do what I do for a living—AND to be able to work with all three of my sons AND my son-in-law. They are all highly creative. Each brings a unique set of skills, tools, interests and perspectives to the table. Really, I kinda have the ultimate dream job. My wife, and my two daughters, Anna and Teryn, are also very creative. I just don’t get a chance to work with them each day.

Now, I know this will sound partial—like a bragging grandfather—but my grandkids are equally as creative. Take my 5-year old grandson, Jack...

Jackcoke

I think it’s because they have creative parents who nurture their creativity. This morning my son-in-law, Rob, showed me a couple of stop-motion videos that my grandson, Jack, created (with help from his dad). They were shot and edited on an iPhone4 using a $0.99 app called StopMotion. Enjoy:

Why Does Transportation Change So Slowly?

IT’S ODD WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT.

Traveling along Interstate 15 through Nevada reminds me of when I was a kid in the ’70’s, and my family would travel from California to Utah each summer to visit my grandma, in paneled station wagons like the one shown above. This time in 2009, I was thinking about how little transportation has changed.

With all the remarkable advances over the last 40 years in technology, bioscience, and manufacturing, we still travel across the country on asphalt roads and rubber tires, at about the same speed, in six or eight-cylinder cars that are about the same size.

We still stop along the way at fillin’ stations for fossil fuel and treats. We still fill the soda cups with a little extra ice to crunch on while passing the time. Even gas pumps look about the same. Kids still ask “are we there yet?” And, the trip still takes almost exactly the same amount of time.

The only real differences have to do with technology—kids watching YouTube videos on their iPhones. Oh...  And one more difference...  We wear seatbelts.

Why so little change?

Road Trip Photo, Courtesy Paul Hadley
Station Wagon Photo, Courtesy Steve Manning

The Four Ways Sound Affects Us

I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN THE POWER OF MUSIC in setting the mood for doing business. Back in the early 80’s I opened a small, intimate gourmet restaurant called Hines’ Mansion. After I sold it, it became a luxury bed & breakfast. Before we owned it, it was a different restaurant and I distinctly remember the music that the previous owner played while people were dining. It was a popular “soft hits” FM station where bad commercial spots constantly interrupted the dining mood. I could never understand that.

After my wife and I bought the restaurant and reopened it, the first thing we did was purchase a high-end reel to reel tape deck and recorded many hours of hand-selected music tracks—all recorded from vinyl records. The sounds were amazing and transformed the dining experience.

Here at our agency, Lava7, I’ve had many clients ask about the background music that’s played here. Of course today there’s no reel-to-reel deck—just an iPod.

The video below is by Julian Treasure, “sound consultant”. He is with Sound Agency, a firm that advises worldwide businesses—offices, retailers, hotels—on how to use sound. How do the sounds that surround us make us feel:  productive, stressed, energized?

Do the sounds in your business contribute or detract from your business objectives?

Is Targeting Children In This Way Ever Justified?

Each time I walk through the Salt Lake City airport I’m reminded of how much I dislike this ad from worldwildlife.org. Today, I just had to stop and snap a quick photo.

When it comes to the debate about the causes of global warming, I understand, and have read a great deal from both sides of the discussion. I get it. And, I understand that there are a lot of people who are very passionate about the issue.

However, when either side simply ignores the debate itself, and instead chooses to target children in an effort to influence, it just doesn’t seem right to me—or smart. It makes me wonder if the human-caused global warming advocates have very much confidence in their position. If they did, they would stick to discussing the issue in an rational, adult-directed manner.

Children, for the most part, live in the present. It’s hard for them to understand how time works. Instilling fear in them, by making them wonder if next season’s little league games will be cancelled due to mass flooding, seems irresponsible.

I don’t know what the answers are in this debate, but I do know that manipulating children for political gain feels wrong. What do you think?

Baseball_globalwarming