March 02, 2005
David Byrne hearts PowerPoint and for that I heart him
Some of you may know me as the person behind flashgeek. It's a place where, primarily, people who are forced to work with Microsoft PowerPoint try to make it prettier by embedding Macromedia Flash movies into PowerPoint slides. It's more art than science, but it does extend the PowerPoint "platform" to include more engaging graphics.So, that said, my mind is a bit tuned to pick up PowerPoint news, always clinging to some distant hope that the need for this kluge will finally be put to rest and PowerPoint designers (why does that sound like such an oxymoron?) will have more than enough tools at their disposal to create beauty with the tool that is so often recognized for its lack of beauty. I like to think that I fight this losing battle on a regular basis. Always trying to make PowerPoint pretty, and always fighting against those who don't. I said losing battle didn't I? Yeah, it is. So it trying to beautify the Web, but that doesn't stop me from trying to help here and there, either. Martyr? No, just a glutton for punishment.
Anyway, maybe I'm a little late to the party, but imagine my surprise today when music-genius David Byrne appears in an article on PowerPoint in my local recycling-bin-filler of a paper The Oregonian (don't get me started). Apparently, Mr. Byrne has been experimenting with PowerPoint as a performance art medium. He has talks, and shows, and sites, and books dedicated to this pursuit. Crazy. Apparently, I need to get my head out of the Sand in the Vaseline. (UPDATE: More from boingboing.)
Leave it to the brilliant Mr. Byrne to tweak my thinking again. What did I get out of the article? (More than The Oregonian thought I would, I'm sure.) What I got was this: Every thing has a different application no matter how overwhelming the preconceived notions about its designed use. Every single thing. And this is critical for someone in any creative pursuit to understand. But it is essential that marketing people learn to understand it.
In marketing, we need to learn that no matter what everyone else is doing, there is a better way to do it. And it might not be through the traditional avenues. It might not even be classified as "marketing" per se. But we need to be thinking that way. Not only can you take something and make it something different, but you can play on the irony of its current perception. And if you can get that irony to work, then your marketing campaign will have even more power.
Now, I usually try to apply this sort of thinking when I'm trying to select an image for an ad, or trying to make a cute play on words, or trying to be clever with tchotchkes. I try to tweak a bit. But I usually use the device for the use it was intended to serve. And maybe, therein, lies my failure. PowerPoint isn't pretty. But it can be. And if that can work for PowerPoint, why can't it work for everything else? Why can't we leverage more of what's at our disposal to make things more clear and more pretty? Maybe the way to convey your message isn't with words?
Maybe I've just got too much Brandsense on the brain, but I'm experiencing some interesting synchronicity with this tweaked thinking string of thought. Maybe someone who ingests these ramblings can make some use of it.
What can you tweak? What ugly thing have you made beautiful? I don't care if you carve artwork with a chainsaw or do wild new things with blackened fish. Let's hear it. If you're just trying to get your head around this, as I am, then I hope you get to thinking and return with some great ideas.
David Byrne hearts PowerPoint and for that I heart him
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