OPINION: The Facebook competition that wasn't

Check out the image posted on Ministry of National Diversity and Social Integration

Been actively trying to stay off  "the facebook" for the past couple of weeks but seeing this brought me out of my little self imposed hiatus. A friend of mine posted the above illustrations done for a crowd-sourced mascot competition put together by the Ministry of National Diversity and Social Integration.

While the entries themselves are interesting ;to say the least; what stuck me was the fact that, they all had a very similar style and structure, which lead me to think that at first this was all sent in by one designer. So i checked out the Facebook page looking for more entries only to realize that this was the only entry and that these designs were the best of the lot.

Now to the untrained eye, they are good designs, but to the professional, you'd know that even though they say that they are from different entrants/ artists, they were all designed by the same artist.

Which leads me to make this assumption

The original entrants had to have had some potential to be chosen, but under the great wisdom of whoever is in control of this competition decided that they were't good enough for public consumption and then had an illustrator redesign them. 

Which begs the question of how the entered artists must feel, entering a competition then being told well you're designs are good, just not good enough for us to show the public.

And while maybe for all intents and purposes for the competition, they wanted each entry to have a uniform quality about them, so that the public judging by "likes" on Facebook can have something pretty to look at (because we all know that can't be rigged). I'm left to wonder if it takes away the point of having a competition of this nature in the first place if you are just going to re-design them at the last minute?

That 27 Perspective

My birthday was this past weekend (27 WHOOHOO)  and I shared some thoughts on it on Facebook and  in turn I'm sharing it here because sometimes we go through phases in our life of incredible self doubt, doubting the path we're on and serious introspection. So read the post, watch the inspiring video and leave a comment.

Thanks for reading.  

"Birthdays always tend to be a time of accounting, accounting your life up to this point, what happened, what hasn't happened, what you want to happen, and it's a time to be thankful that you have lived as long as you have on this earth and acknowledging that sometimes it gets hard but never hard enough that you can't handle.
I started this year having to set up a new strategic plan to a big part of my life and anyone who's an entrepreneur knows how difficult that can be, not only is it taxing financially but also psychologically and someone like me, who's extra hard on themselves I took it personal to a great extent. Sometimes it harder to see what we're not doing as opposed to what we have done, but I've done great things, started a company, travelled, have amazing friends, family and loved ones and trying my best to live my life for me, making my own path in this world.
I'm thankful for the journey I've taken up to this point and amazingly grateful for the path that I am currently on. All the mistakes and triumphs and failures I've had are all experiences that moulded me into a person I'm proud to be today.
To the people who've been on this journey with me up to this point, the friends who are more like family, the mentors who became friends, the supporters, the cheerleaders,the people who affect me positively without even knowing it, the people who make my day brighter and better even the haters, the stressors, the people who have given me strength I never knew I had, there's no way I can thank you all today ( will damn near try), but I hope one day I can return the Favour for some of the things y'all have brought into my life."

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Creating Animated Content for the Big Networks

Great Talk about Creating Animated Content for the Big Networks






Also Check out The Awesome Chris Oatley talk about the  Common Pitfalls to avoid when  developing an Animation Pitch.

 "Cinema is lying 24 frames per second, all story is manipulation."

I love Ken Burns's take on story and what it means to him and i can see some of this sentiments being reflected in my own way of thinking, my own view of story. We use story to extend ourselves, and when we stop telling stories we lose who we are.
This hit home in a very small way, yesterday as I was speaking at a Career day at a Primary School, I just made a passing example about Papa Bois, and not a hint of recognition was in these kids. They can go on and on about Spiderman and Batman, but our own stories are being lost, and im not just referring to folklore, but our story whatever that may be.

I'm left to wonder, who and where are our storytellers, what are the stories they choose to tell, who do they choose to tell them to or who would they want to read their stories, learn from their stories, experience their stories and do they even ask themselves these questions?

  

Good decisions come from Experience

"Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. ~Author Unknown"

I'm one of those people who like to look at quotes any time I'm trying to figure out how I'm feeling. It's like I need to find the "oh so"right poetic way to describe the thoughts circling my head. When found this one i both laughed at how true it is, but also was slightly taken aback and forced to think about this decision in front of me now, and if it's a bad one?

I know i don't have enough experience to say with 100% assurance that this decision I'm making is based on past experiences, I'm making this on a whim and a prayer and having faith that things will work out.
This Decision can potentially put our company (Lab 206) on a path towards rapid growth, or potentially set us at the back of the pack. This is a race, and opportunities come and go to give you a fighting chance within this race, and we can sit by and keep chugging along or we can take the risk and bite that incoming bullet (this post is just riddled with bad clichés) 

Without great risk, you cannot have great reward. How many businesses, have both risen and fallen under that same notion . I guess we'll see in the next coming months where we end up with the decisions made this week. If they bear fruit or end up being the poison apple, time will tell..and time favours the young.