Transparency

Abstract – that / this / things / work / jeans / hat

Hi everyone! Ready for some conceptual development? Let’s go!

Transparency is our ability to see through the madness. If you walk alongside an ad, a banner or a billboard, you are shuffling ahead, trying to get by the crowds surrounding your body and your spirit. This leaves you with little to no time to stop, to take a breath and to analyze what you see. But if you do have a moment, take it. Stop, breathe, then look. Let’s analyze this image as you would see it, if for example, you were walking through Burrard skytrain station (Vancouver, BC) trying to catch your ride home.

It’s so bold, you have to stop. Even if for 1 second. You’re wondering about the colours, the use of red + blue & light purple. Why would they do this? But look – a rabbit. It’s in the centre of the circle. I suppose we are trying to catch it, but it is getting away. That’s interesting! Softly positioned underneath, we see some text – A Technical Creative Company. Hmm. I guess this business is in the business of creating technical and creative things. And that is enough to think. A slight nod of his head, then he walks away.

From Wikipedia –

Hidden Markov Model (HMM) is a statistical Markov model in which the system being modeled is assumed to be a Markov process with unobservable (i.e. hidden) states.

In simpler Markov models (like a Markov chain), the state is directly visible to the observer, and therefore the state transition probabilities are the only parameters, while in the hidden Markov model, the state is not directly visible, but the output (in the form of data or “token” in the following), dependent on the state, is visible. Each state has a probability distribution over the possible output tokens. Therefore, the sequence of tokens generated by an HMM gives some information about the sequence of states; this is also known as pattern theory, a topic of grammar induction.

The adjective hidden refers to the state sequence through which the model passes, not to the parameters of the model; the model is still referred to as a hidden Markov model even if these parameters are known exactly.

Hidden Markov models are especially known for their application in reinforcement learning and temporal pattern recognition such as speech, handwriting, gesture recognition,^[7] part-of-speech tagging, musical score following,^[8] partial discharges^[9] and bioinformatics.^[10]

Transparency. It is hard to see the writing, but I suppose this is a play on words. Let’s take a step aside to identify another idea that could possibly contribute to our exploration of transparency.

Shakespeare wrote –

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

As an exercise for my readers, let’s remove ‘seven ages’ and replace it with ‘seven goals’, which we can create to incorporate more visuality into our practice. If you are a business owner, define these seven goals around the fields of branding, marketing and sales. And in case you were wondering about the word visuality, https://www.merriam-webster.com describes it as –

Definition of visuality

1: the quality or state of being visual or visible : VISIBILITY

2: a mental image or picture : VIEW, GLIMPSE

So, seven goals to incorporate more visuality into my business (acting as a business owner for Blox. Communications) –

(Goals should relate to the quality or state of being visible, as in advertising/PR and should relate to a mental image or picture, as in HOW our customers perceive our business and our products/services.)

1. Define 1 main logo and 1 main tag;
2. Consistently promote ChonaBLOX. blog (with URL) across all social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter);
3. Come up with a consistent slogan for each identity (BLOX, ChonaBLOX. and Blox. Communications);
4. Ensure each project/document aligns with established goal attributes – transparency, accuracy and responsibility;
5. Speak and write using vivid and bold description;
6. Speak and write following a linear and logical pattern;
7. Establish brand identity using colour + text as a visual tool across all platforms.

Can you come up with something like this for your own business? For myself, transparency is creating an abstract concept, breaking it down for my reader, so that they can begin to understand the ways we see and interpret visual and/or written data, using innovative + mainstream techniques. This is a skill and it must be honed. If you are trying to establish or refine your brand, your marketing strategy or your sales approach, comprehension of innovative + mainstream ideas is imperative, especially in a visual state. Do you agree with this?

Back to our analysis…

(Ask yourself, can we jump from paragraph to paragraph? Does it distort the message?)

And it relates to the two images, because the first one is bold and the second one is more transparent. However, messaging does not exist along the same plane. Which image has more popularity? More relevance? More authority? More credibility? (These are SEO metrics to keep in mind.) The man, who I forgot to mention, wears a khaki-coloured trench coat and matching hat. He takes 5 steps back to re-read the word ‘transparency’. He quickly glances further back at the bolder image, then walks forward 8 steps to be faced directly with the more transparent image.

We have engaged our viewer. Transparency is a particular context that comments on HOW things work. Transparency, which lexico.com defines as – an image, text, or positive transparent photograph printed on transparent plastic or glass – is able to be viewed using a projector. Just as a frosted window engages its audience to peer in closer, these images encourage the same experience. Perhaps if the man looks closer, deeper, further into, he will begin to question HOW the messaging is working, while still taking in a normative meaning that most average ads, banners or billboards intend.

And visually speaking, the projector has imprinted the image in our minds, in our short and long term memory. In our digital collaborative state, the aim is to be able to study another’s work and run a real-time comparison to understand how someone else’s chosen elements could apply to and improve our chosen modes of communication. Again and again, we see that the stage is experiential and we must involve ourselves with interest and intention to reap any benefits for our business and our customers.

Members of the advertising discipline are playing many intentional ‘games’ that are designed to engage, enrapture and captivate a specific, targeted audience. Would you want your audience to be enthralled? Are there any downsides to this type of engagement? Is the experience itself enough?