Category: Communication Theory
Past Experience
Fruit Salad
Hi everyone!
These are the kinds of stories I love telling my daughter, Bishop. I want her to understand linearity and its purpose. So in the most basic of elements, the beginning and an end. Also, inserting subject matter that she is currently familiar with, like numbers, colours and fruits. Her stories lately start with, “One day!” as if she is saying ‘today’ with so much resolve, confidence and sobriety. She is not referring to daydreams in or of the future. It is a great mentality that I sometimes wonder (with my preposterous knack for discounting – this is why I value BELIEF), did she get that from me?
The answer is: Yes, she did. Of course!
If all else fails: trust your daughter!
Enjoy!
Abstract – the / an / referring / which village are you from
She bombed down the hill, biting her teeth into a teal blue apple. The shiny surface reflected confidence and her sobriety. She was going to win this game! But then suddenly, the mysterious sasquatch was coming. She could hear his roar and he zoomed through the trees landing victoriously onto a pile of soft snow. His green tuque made him look like a kiwi fruit. Bishop was suddenly starving, but there was no time to stop.
A team of yellow capricorns danced around the finish line, laughing and hiccuping at the sight before them. The orange judge was serious and studious. He seemed to bear more focus on his clipboard than on the race. Flipping her hair and toying with the pens behind her ears, another judge was vivacious and fixated. Her red dress was imprinted with marigold polka dots and it swayed in the warm breeze felt by all at Sunshine Village.
Village A is competitive. Always looking for the advantage. Has an alarming penchant for recognition, which bears a sense of positivity in their pursuits. Village A is not at first welcoming, but becomes comfortable if their surroundings seem to agree.
Suddenly, Chona came flying down the narrow corridor wearing a vintage, pink one-piece snowsuit she found at Value Village precisely 10 years ago. There was no one behind her at this point, so she raised her arms proclaiming, “Funny. These bags seem heavier than they were yesterday. My stuff must have grown!” The clock was ticking down to the last few seconds, then a huge bell signalled the end of the race.
Village B is innovative. Always looking for the answer. Has an alarming penchant for reassurance, which bears a sense of positivity in their pursuits. Village B is not at first welcoming, but becomes comfortable if their surroundings seem to agree.
The champions switched outfits (because that’s what champs do when they win) and all stood boldly on the podium, waving arms, pleasing the crowds who came to watch them.
“Purple purple. The medals are purple! That is so cool!”
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SEO
Hi everyone!
Just a short burst of info here. What are you drawn to? Do the colours play a significant role in your interpretation? What connections can you make with the chosen imagery attached to each hashtag?
A perfect brainstorming exercise for design newbies – make a list under each hashtag including transferable elements (actual aspects and items like a brand name or object) and attributes (descriptions and words) for each. Aim for 50 answers, then narrow down to your top 10 answers, then again to your top 3, then top 1. What conclusion can you draw from this experiment?
Always remember the acronym PRAC – Popularity, Relevance, Authority & Credibility. This will help you target your audience and ensure that your content is set up to improve your overall search engine rankings.
Yes, yes…SEO is a lot more complex than a simple acronym, but sometimes starting off with something more general helps to develop your digital marketing strategy or plan more succinctly down the road.
I will get into this topic (SEO) further in the future!
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Visual Transparency
Hi everyone!
Today’s topic is SMART Goals.
A brief definition of each objective and an example of how each objective can be applied to achieve an effective creative technical writing style.
Here, I am writing about visual transparency as it relates to an image I designed for Blocks, my first and ongoing social media management strategy. Blocks aims to explore left and right-brained thinking and our ability to control destiny (or in simpler terms, improve issues of self-image or esteem.) Note: Initially, I was going to include the image in this post, but the relevance of my imagery is too swift. I will always include my most recent works to keep you up-to-date with my current visual style and tone.
As an extra creative exercise, try to imagine a fruit to attach to each objective. How does it relate to the SMART goal and our definition of visual transparency? Could you affix these tasty symbols to a billboard? What would be the significance? How effective would say, a giant teal apple be at communicating a specific message?
I will post the fruits on my next post tomorrow!
BEGIN
HEADING: The heading is the text indicating the nature of the article below it. The large type front page headline did not come into use until the late 19th century when increased competition between newspapers led to the use of attention-getting headlines. (Wikipedia)
WILL IT ENTICE YOU IN A GLANCE?
SUBHEADING: For documents longer than 3 or 4 paragraphs, subheadings are an important usability and accessibility strategy to help readers both determine the overall outline of the document and to navigate to specific information on the page.
VISUAL TRANSPARENCY AS A COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
SPECIFIC: Goals that are specific have a significantly greater chance of being accomplished. It should be well-defined, clear, and unambiguous. Essentially a definition of your idea that allows your audience to understand your topic more accurately. (CFI)
Visual transparency, from an artist’s standpoint, is a form of contextual openness that allows viewers to become engaged on a more subconscious or subliminal level.
MEASURABLE: Goals that are measurable have criteria for measuring progress. Criteria can be in line with your vision, mission, values etc. The point is to measure your progress somehow, for example, how would you measure engagement or participation? Is the action itself significant enough? In writing, a statement of intent is a great way to achieve a sense of measurability. (CFI)
As a writer and digital specialist, the goal is to be transparent, accurate and responsible. As an artist, I simply want to be engaged with my work and for my viewers to participate. Note: professional transparency has more to do with how others perceive you and what your actions say about your brand.
ATTAINABLE: Goals that are attainable help you figure out ways you can realize an objective and work towards it. The achievability of the goal should be stretched to make you feel challenged, but defined well enough that you can actually achieve it. It would be a good time to insert your call to action here. (CFI)
With all of the outlets available, viewers can participate using whichever preferred medium they desire. And they don’t need to be 100% engaged for it to matter. For example, your interaction with a billboard might only last 5 seconds, so the argument could be that visual transparency is actually quite critical.
RELEVANT: Goals that are relevant must be realistic given the available resources and your timeline. What would be the innovative or mainstream approach? What are pertinent examples you can showcase? What will be the outcome? Ideal or realistic? Your exploration should be relevant to your life’s or work’s purpose. (CFI)
This is who we are today. We embrace a fast and furious approach to everything and criticize the results. From placing mobile food orders to providing subscribers with a mere minute to execute a successful Instagram (video) campaign – the faster we engage our viewers while applying visual transparency, the more likely we can succeed in delivering our message.
TIME-BOUND: Goals that are time-bound must have a sense of a start and finish date. What is it like today, what will it be like in the future? If the goal is not time constrained, there will be no sense of urgency or motivation to achieve the goal. What is causing the urgency for action? Are we in a position to answer or question? (CFI)
Perhaps one day it will be different, but for now artists and marketers must adapt to these swift modes of communication. Visual transparency will become the norm, then who knows what will be next…
END
Does using the SMART goal technique help you? I believe that it is a great stepping stone towards achieving a more clear and linear style of communication. Test it out!
Meanwhile, dear Alice is still falling…
down?
below?
towards?
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Meaningfulness
Editing could quite possibly be the treachery of writing! Overly edited content may tell readers, “This is not false.” On the other side, the raw construction of content is meaningful, but we should argue that the deliberate deconstruction of content to reveal a greater point of view (proper editing) more readily achieves the goals of an SEO/l or a communications strategy – to uphold popularity, relevance, authority and credibility and to distribute a message that is transparent, accurate and responsible.
This piece is inspired by a very popular surrealist painting, Ceci n’est pas une pipe by René Magritte. Ironically, my image overloads the viewer with elaborate messages (a commentary on keywords perhaps), whereas Magritte’s painting is a basic review of signified and signifier. Here’s some additional information taken from Wikipedia –
The Treachery of Images (French: La Trahison des images) is a 1929 painting by surrealist painter René Magritte.
The painting shows a pipe. Below it, Magritte painted, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe“, French for “This is not a pipe”.
The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it’s just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture “This is a pipe”, I’d have been lying! (Magritte)
Do you enjoy the process of editing? How do you know when to stop and is this action directly related to the meaningfulness of a message, because content becomes inherently closer to ‘an answer’ or ‘a reality’? Which one for you?
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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
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.)
- Define 1 main logo and 1 main tag;
- Consistently promote ChonaBLOX. blog (with URL) across all social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter);
- Come up with a consistent slogan for each identity (BLOX, ChonaBLOX. and Blox. Communications);
- Ensure each project/document aligns with established goal attributes – transparency, accuracy and responsibility;
- Speak and write using vivid and bold description;
- Speak and write following a linear and logical pattern;
- 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?
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Introduction
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Influence
Hi everyone!
We want to fit into the human experience, but in today’s digital condition, it can all seem very confusing. Let’s explore the idea of illusion and HOW it relates to social media marketing.
An illusion is a misrepresentation of a “real” sensory stimulus – that is, an interpretation that contradicts objective “reality” as defined by general agreement. For example: reach, likes, your interaction with a mirror or the selfie.
The psychological concept of illusion is defined as a process involving an interaction of logical and empirical considerations. Common usage suggests that an illusion is a discrepancy between one’s awareness and some stimulus.
Are you able to identify some LABELS OF ILLUSION used in social media today? Do the labels impart a lesser or greater influence in terms of how we see ourselves and others?
Case Study
Label:
She is in a bikini, showing the world her body. She is smiling, so she is happy with her appearance and comfortable in her own skin.
Hypothesis:
Influence, as opposed to reach, can extend beyond numbers/demographics and descriptors/psychographics.
Explanation:
Within our cultural/societal context, the labels identified in pink can impart a greater influence on ourselves and others. (Note: influence does not always have a positive effect/affect.) HOW? Cultural appropriation (in visual arts, to appropriate means to properly adopt, borrow, or recycle) effects/affects everyone using the same medium. Marshall Mcluhan, considered by many to be the first father and leading prophet of the electronic age (leaderu.com) argued that, “The medium is the message.” Therefore, the more people exploring similar labels influence more people and the message itself becomes more significant or important. WHY? Cultural integrity says that everybody is included and can be a part of the message. Support is shown by repeating labels within both our cultural/societal context and the content of our individual situations (message). (Note: again, support can have a positive or negative effect/affect.) The more we relate to one another, the greater influence can be.
Exploration:
What we want to know is – HOW then, can we substantiate, quantify (excellence) or qualify (perfection) the labels that we see across channels and platforms? You’ve probably come across messages proclaiming, “She just looks that way online, but in real life, she is miserable.” Or captions that comment, “That is just a flattering angle, I’m posing.” And, “She used filters to slim her waistline and to make it seem like she is wearing makeup.”
Within our cultural/societal context, the labels identified in red impart an even greater influence on ourselves and others. HOW? Cultural integrity causes a competitive sentiment which promotes unique content and more importantly, individuality. This brings us back to asking WHY? And, we can answer in the same way as above — cultural appropriation says that everybody can be included and is a part of the message. Support is shown by repeating labels (or opposing labels) within both our cultural/societal context and the content of our individual situations (message). The more we relate or contend with one another, the greater influence will be.
So, how can we discern true ownership in a digital condition riddled with illusion?
Cultural appropriation: to explore further
Cultural integrity: to explore further
Effect: to explore further
Affect: to explore further
Strong values and ideas in branding are important. This is cultural appropriation + cultural integrity. Everyone can play a role because as a whole, we are impressing cultural/societal change and development for ourselves and for others. No matter WHAT the message is, it is being shared and released within a free, digital democracy and thus, the content we create and HOW it is transmuted becomes a message in and of itself.
Influence is an original, unbiased and rare phenomenon. It can create a streamlined effect in messaging (communication), which affects WHY we think.
The questions become:
WHY do we choose to direct the flow of creation, messaging and communication (our omnichannel experience)? To change the human experience? To change negative thought processes? As an outlet to comprehend the difference between analog and digital meaning? To explore our digital condition? To belong to a revolution? To simply participate?
To expand:
Use Digital Presence – A Business Model (exploring left and right-brained equalization through messaging/communication management)
Conclusion (for now):
Blox. Communications is always looking for ways to impact the greater picture. We are a POWER OF INFLUENCE and we want to ask: HOW can we influence positive change in the human experience psyche using a digital mind frame? Can our channels become more transparent if a few simple rules (i.e. questioning ASMR) or set practices (use of the selfie to elevate self-esteem, rather than self-image) were put into place? Can our platforms be used for something other than self-promotion? This competitive nature that we rarely talk about, it is happening and what is it serving us? Do we need to adopt digital minimalism? Studies show anxiety among youths has skyrocketed and Generation Z is suffering the consequence with increased cases of depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), impulsive disorder, problems with mental functioning, paranoia, and loneliness (adaa.org). Needless to say, our society is up to speed. We know this is going on, but WHAT are we going to do to change it?
Worry is a false attribute. That is the argument – that our involvement in the digital condition is impacting the human experience, our psyche, modes of thinking and ways of communicating messages. We can choose to negate the entire experience, or we can believe that change is already happening. And, for the better.
We don’t need physical collaboration. It occurs spontaneously through the power and magic of digital media. We are all potentially working together, depending on how you choose to see it. Your perception is bold enough to see outside of regular composition. You can see more than the truth that the regular world presents to us. You see an ideal, an ideal that is off the grid and too good to conceive. So, it is a matter of comprehension. HOW will we bring the world together in our new digital condition? Can we teach youth HOW to go beyond apparent teachings? Can humankind collectively push the boundaries of medicine and science (through art and language), so that our human experience can be brought into a new time frame that will change the very aspects of our health and wellness?
Continue to imbue your force upon other forces. In this great way, wild things will occur. Changes guys, changes!
This journal (thesis development) is TBC. If you have any inquiries, please reach out – info@chonsfecanlas.com.
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A Blox Manifesto
Hi everyone! I present this creative manifesto to portray myself, art director. It is theoretical and abstract. Have a read and please share your comments!
My odd discoveries are niched between innovation and the mainstream. For instance, if you have to think with a reason, you will create a chain reaction. You can force it, think it or enable it. It comes from within, like the mass of a tornado picking up speed or fear that the same wind will blow you off a bridge. So, how can we make these constant discoveries without becoming lost? As it always was, record your ideas and when I return, if it does not make sense, then time has passed. Take note that the world needs new things – disconnection from belonging, then suddenly, an objective and rational zen. We can’t automate knowledge, no matter what the group thinks; we can’t copy, steal or pretend. Because those with the ability can argue that it cannot be contained. Try to study da Vinci. Can you reproduce his 19 notebooks that included studies of the human circulatory system and plans for aircrafts and submarines? Our renaissance involves top channels urging the resistance to stop cowering behind boring practices and facades of knowledge or the world will never know the peace of language, nor the nature of our true digital environment. I will be here to plug it all together, make sense of it all, then present my findings with one goal – to substantiate a realistic definition and record of our Digital Presence. You will be listening through the air and the speed by which you can travel will be determined by creativity, activity and selflessness. You can make it in seconds. It also takes decades, in fact thousands and thousands of years in time and space. Topics pertaining to analytics, insight and AI. Cures for psychosomatic disease, body dysmorphia, cancer. Working our thinking capabilities. Our capacity to believe. Our ability to organize and refocus thought. Updating medicine. Explaining mental illness. Change in everything, even radio. Our everyday landscape will keep the same weather; we will occupy the same ability to choose, the same emotions and relationships. It can all be achieved, simultaneously. I will be the one to write about it; every inch and element – watch!
Stay tuned if you’re hardcore enough!
Blox. is a Creative & Technical Marketer 