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The Spirit of the Season

December 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year!” We say it all so readily as the early winter season approaches. But do we mean it? Are you helping make your part of the world better, are you volunteering your time to help others. There are so many organizations that need our help where you can directly help individuals in your community or around the world.

Here are some organizations that I feel are worthwhile, please let me know if you have any to add to the list. Organizations that truly know the Spirit of the Season all year long.

- Your local volunteer fire company, they depend so much on the generosity of other. Please help.

- Your local Rotary Club. These dedicated business persons help with community projects to international aid and do so much to help others around the world and around the corner.

- Your local food bank. As the economy slowly recovers from 2011 to 2012, please remember there are many in your community that may need help with the basic elements, such as their next meal, please remember to help all year long, as hunger isn’t just a seasonal problem.

- Helping someone that is down on his luck, cancer touches almost every family, and For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation helps families battling cancer so they can get break from cancer.

- Nothing says Christmas and Hanukkah like toys for children, no one does it better than the U.S. Marine Corps. and their Toys for Tots program. If you can help, please do.

Let me know who you help at this season, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Filed Under: Inspiration, Tim's Observations, Volunteering Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

RavenWood Creative Published in the Library of Congress

April 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Yes, with the acquisition of the Twitter archives by The Library of Congress, where every public tweet ever “SENT” is now archived with the Library, everyone who uses Twitter publicly is now published in the Library of Congress’ vast archives. So such great tweets from @TimErnst and @RavenWoodCreate as the following:

@TimErnst Lots of little projects filling my day, today. But’s it’s these types of days that keep me busy and projects moving. Bouncing 1 to another.

Or my personal favorite, my first tweet: @TimErnst blogging and surfing the web

Or @RavenWoodCreate Just completed the 2009 State of the Market Report for a client, just under 700 pages of Adobe InDesign Layout and… http://bit.ly/djE9Jj

… are all now a part of American history.

As you can see its stunning insights into the human condition that I’m contributing on Twitter. But it is interesting and historic that the LoC has deemed this relatively new form of communication (started in 2006) worthy of archiving. Our President used it to thank supporters when he was elected, and the Miracle on the Hudson was broadcast first on Twitter by rescuers and folks standing on the wings in the chilly river. So it looks like Twitter will be around for a while and it’s archives even longer. Can you imagine a student researching our history in years to come trying to write a report citing their facts in 140 character snippets?

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Historical, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

What would we do without “OK”?

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This week back in 1839, the Boston Morning Post first published the initials “O.K.”

Can you imagine living in a time before “Okay” or “OK” was in the language? If someone tripped and fell in front of you before 1839, I guess you asked if they were “adequate” or “peachy keen.” It’s very odd how language has evolved. It seems OK was an abbreviation for “oll correct” and popular slang term of the time that was a misspelling of “all correct.” It seems it was a hobby at the time for young people of the time to take words, misspell them and use them as slang when conversing. I’m sure glad that hobby never caught on, d’you? Dag – that’s the bomb!

What are your favorite slang terms, and is technology and its omnipresence in today’s society influencing our language in a bad way?

Let me know, a’right. Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Historical, Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

Logos created by RavenWood Creative Adorn Fire Apparatus

January 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m so proud. As a member of Flourtown Fire Company, I was asked to develop a logo for the 100th Anniversary of the company. They wanted something that fondly incorporated its proud history of serving the community of Springfield Township, Montgomery County, PA, but also looked to the future for the company. The logo combines a Maltese cross, common in the fire service, with a traditional ribbon treatment from the past with the theme of the anniversary “A Century of Service.” I updated the Maltese cross to include a modern hydraulic rescue tool on one side with the traditional, ladder, hydrant, and hook on the other. The center field includes a flame motif, adopted by the company many years ago with a super-imposed “6″ in transparent smoke color over top.

The logo also features a ribbon of gold, reminiscent of the gold leafing found on the trucks. The years of the anniversary 1910 and 2010 surround the traditional logo of the company a script “FFCo”, which took many hours in Illustrator to mimic as it’s only painted on the sides of the apparatus and any printed versions didn’t have the detail I was looking for. The logo was printed by Pierce Apparatus Manufacturers on reflective decal backing and sliced preciously to fit on the roll up doors on the rear of Ladder 6, Engine 6 and Squad 6 all of which are housed at Flourtown Fire Company, 1526 Bethlehem Pike.

Let me know what you think.

Tim

Filed Under: Design, Volunteering Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Birthday Edgar! Here’s to an Original…

January 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Edgar Allan Poe would be 201 today. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Every man is born an original, but sadly, most men die copies.” Lincoln who would come to national prominence after Poe’s death, surely was familiar with Poe’s works. Poe was an original. Although many critics of his time, i.e. Rev. Rufus Griswold, thought him to be an odd and overly analytical literature critic. Griswold who met Poe in 1841, thought they shared a love of literature, but that’s about all they shared. Griswold thought befriending Poe would help his own writing career. Until later in 1841, when Poe wrote his first criticism of Griswold’s work in “Autobiography” – the friendship was over.

In this day of citizen journalism, with blogs, you tube, and all the other social media available, I find it hard to find an original. It’s just so easy to just retweet, cut and paste and just create a copy of others works. I wonder what Edgar would think of all this instantaneous media and news? Would the Griswold vs. Poe feud take place on Twitter? Would their “personal brands” be damaged by being thrown under the bus by one another on TMZ?

The two men would continue to criticize each others work. Phrases such as “hack”, “outrageous humbug” and “lacks independence, or judgment or both” were traded between them and in letters to friends. Griswold would hold the grunge beyond Poe’s death. Griswold’s obituary of Poe would become infamous, as the fans of the first detective novel and the master of the macabre, would forever color Griswold as the villain.

Do you have someone in your life that you’re cordial to in public, but behind their back you slight and criticize? How has society and the implementation of so much technology changed the way people criticize one another?

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Historical, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Marco … Polo and Lessons He Left for Us Today

January 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Marco Polo

On this day back in 1324, Marco Polo died. I remember as a child, The Travels of Marco Polo, was one of the first books I signed out of the library. I remember sitting on the steps of my house reading the book cover to cover. The stories of the explorer venturing out of Venice and traveling to China fascinated me. But did you know, Marco Polo didn’t write his own story. As the story goes, after traveling throughout Asia for 24 years (after his Father and Uncle traveled there), and naming all the kingdom he found in the time of Kublai Khan – Polo returned home and the Genoese captured him as a prisoner of war as they fought with Venice. It was while he was imprisoned that he related his story to a fellow prisoner, who wrote it down. The ghost writer, rumored to be, Rustichello of Pisa, was for the most part lost to history but the tales of Polo’s adventures lived on. The book became a top seller in medieval Europe.

But you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about Marco Polo, who has been for the most part relegated to a summertime swimming game and the history books, on a blog that for the most part deals with design, marketing and communication. The lessons of Marco Polo for the modern world:

1) If you have a story to tell … but feel you can’t do it justice, find someone who can, and let them tell it. But do share your story, as it may inspire others, like a young boy in the suburbs of Philadelphia to one day venture out on his own and tell his story.

2) Go outside your comfort zone, as Marco Polo did leaving his native Italy to visit with cultures and people that surely shocked him.

3) Be a student of life and the people within it. Just as Polo studied Khan’s empire and became a trusted advisor to him, being able to speak four languages and teller of tales he engaged this foreign audience in China who was as curious to learn from him as he was to learn from them.

4) Take risks, venturing down the Silk Road was a bold move at the time, putting his life on the line with bandits and warlords was to be admired.

5) Stick you your guns, when The Travels of Marco Polo was released, most in Europe thought it to be a book of lies. Polo died being considered a creator of fairy tales more than an explorer, but Polo remained firm his stories of his travels were true. Many think that Polo and others embellished their stories to sell more copies, which is probably true.

6) Network, Marco Polo supposedly was given a golden tablet from Khan himself that let him travel freely throughout Asia and warded off bandits. So it goes to show you even in the 1200s it was who you knew that had a powerful impact on your life.

So let me know your thoughts on the Marco Polo lessons for the modern world. What book do you remember reading as a child? Does a story that entertains us and takes us to another world need to be entirely factual, or is it the fact that Polo promoted it as such, that turned his audience against him, (i.e. Oprah and James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces)?

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Historical, Inspiration, Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In Tribute to Edgar Allan Poe

October 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Poe_TombstoneThis past weekend, my wife and I attended the funeral of Edgar Allan Poe, the poet, writer and man about town in Baltimore, MD. The burial event was part of the bicentennial celebration of Poe’s birth in 1809. We made a weekend of it and on Saturday visited the Poe House and Museum in one of Baltimore’s “finer” neighborhoods. The tiny house has just enough articles and mementos to keep a Poe fan, like me, satisfied. We had the added bonus of being able to “visit” Mr. Poe’s body. It was actually the special effects creation produced for the next day’s funeral, but it was very “death-like” corpse and eerie being in the home Poe lived in for a short time, looking at his coffin, his stillness, on the second floor parlor of the home.

The next day, we gathered with several hundred other people to witness the procession and funeral service that Poe never had as only a handful of people reportedly attended his funeral in 1849. The crowd spanned the generations and was complete with folks in true Victorian garb to people in what they think is Victorian attire, to people like my wife and I who thought a Poe T-shirt from the Annabel Lee Tavern was appropriate to honor the poet. We all started snapping photos as the horse-drawn casket escorted by the police and the Loch Raven Pipe and Drum Band along with actors portraying Poe’s contemporaries and other famous authors influenced by Poe lead his casket into Westminster Hall where Poe is buried on the corner of Fayette and Greene Streets.Poe_Memorial

Just prior to the arrival of Poe’s body and procession, I was interviewed by Bob Little of the Baltimore Sun for the article he wrote about the reburial. We were interrupted by security Westminster Hall who asked to leave the cemetery as the 12:30 ticket holders proceeded inside. His article captured the atmosphere well, the odd gathering of fans and “sad occasion,” as described by Jeff Jerome.

Poe_hearseWhat I found was the reburial was more of a celebration of Poe’s short life and his work and his genius. The crowd laughed, it pondered Poe’s influence and was entertained by the actors who portrayed the following figures and eulogized Poe:

Sarah Helen Whitman – Poe wrote several poems about her

The Rev. Rufus Griswold – A contemporary of Poe’s who defamed him after his death, he was hissed by the crowd as he railed against Poe’s literary criticism skills.

Nathaniel P. Willis

George Lippard

Dr. John Moran – who attended to Poe in his final days.

Marie Louise Shew

H.B. Latrobe – The editor of the magazine who awarded Poe $50.00 for his story MS. found in a Bottle.

Walt Whitman

Charles Baudelaire

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

H.P. Lovecraft

Sir Alfred Hitchcock

The living:

Ellen Datlow, award winning author and editor

Gris Grimly, artist and graphic novelist

Mark Redfield

Poe_john_askinJohn Astin – emceed the proceedings, the actor who for years has portrayed Poe in a one-man show. Well-known to the world as Gomez Addams from the Addams family.

Jeff Jerome

The literary genius of Poe was captured nicely by Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum, who put together the burial weekend in an odd, macabre setting of Poe’s home and the ceremonies at Westminster Hall. I think Poe, who I believe was always seeking Eldorado, his city of gold, would have appreciated all the attention and be humbled by it. Poe is like most of us, not confident in his own talents, but talented none the less and as John Astin pointed out, he never gave up writing throughout his tormented life. As he urges us in Eldorado to continue to ride boldly into the night.Poe_body

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Historical, Inspiration Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Recap via Twitter of IABC World Conference 2009 – Part 2

June 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

SanFrancisco_FerryIn my last post, I reviewed the first half of the IABC 2009 World Conference as I saw it (and how I tweeted about it) and how Twitter was a huge part of the conference. Now I’d like to review the second half and the powerful speakers who helped shape the focus and energize the attendees.

Tuesday was, of course, followed by Monday night, and the IABC Heritage Region reception where I met @kathryncobb (from Chicago, its a long story how she wound up at the Heritage Reception) and two friends I’d made the night before at the Welcoming Reception at the Ferry Building (pictured here) in San Francisco. Laura Stone Bell and Erin Sullivan from Jones Day were, as many IABCers are, welcoming, friendly, and a lot of fun. Long story short, the four of us wound up at Halmand Palace, an Afghan restaurant in SF. The food was delicious, it was my first time having such cuisine, but Kathryn, who grew up in Pakistan, explained to us first how to pronounce  what we would be eating and what is typically in the food of that region. Seems her father a doctor, took her family to Pakistan when she was young to show villagers how to cut down on infant-mortality and other health-risks and the family lived in northern Pakistan until she was 17. Another world-shrinking moment for me as a result of my involvement with IABC.

Tuesday General Session:
I was frankly too enthralled by Robert Swan, OBE to tweet much during his speech to IABC. His insights into leadership, the environment and our own sustainability as a planet where spot on, and I’m proud of IABC as an organization which brings us such speakers and walks the walk with its own environmental practices. Gone are the days of water bottles, huge conference programs and directories at IABC conferences, instead opting for more online resources for speaker notes and glasses and water jugs in the session rooms.  Why do such sessions make us so thirsty? Bravo IABC!

Tuesday Morning:
BJ Fogg, Ph.D. presentation Design for Behavior Change: Why Facebook and Twitter are winning was awesome. His insights into to how design can make people act, for me, was worth the price of the entire conference and yet, it was only one of the many sessions I attended. BJ broke down the complex nature of behavioral studies and design into clean, fun, and powerful examples. His session was the first I ran into that the speaker didn’t want anyone blogging about his presentation as he is publishing a book about the topic. He didn’t mind the occasional tweet about it, so I’ll respect his work and limit my review of the presentation to my tweets: Behavior change through on line video very interesting. Start small…; BJ Fogg improv with audience members very funny. Good sports and adventurous Adam, Eve and Serpent #iabc09 persuasion behaviormodel.org; BJ Fogg pain/pleasure core motivators hope/fear social belonging other core motivators; BJ Fogg behavior is all about motivation and ability. Make it simple, to motivate “view your world through this filter.”; We live in a one click world – BJ Fogg.

Tuesday Afternoon:
After a lunch out by Union Square, where I caught some of the 47th Annual Cable Car Bell-ringing Contest. I was back at the conference for the Web 2.0 and internal communication panel discussion with Deborah Moore, from here in Philly, Karen Horn, from Washington State and Jeremy Schultz (@jschultz) from the state of Oregon and Intel. This discussion really found its legs when it was opened up to questions from the audience. It seemed the post-lunch energy level of the panel was a bit off as the majority of the session was very low-key and the examples were nothing earth-shattering. Tweets speak for themselves: T10 web 2.0 presentation needs more energy. Speakers seem very laid back. GSK Intranet homepage the busiest I’ve ever seen.; T10 Web 2.0 a second wind has liven up the presentation with questions from the audience. D. Moore is quite the comic “youtwitface”; RT @disruptivethink #iabc09 – check out ibm beehive -http://bit.ly/1Tejt Intranet based on facebook; RT @llibitz #iabc09 T10 – Web 2.0 tools don’t replace the traditional emp. comm tools (printed pubs, f2f, etc.) just augments them – AMEN!

While I was sitting in the Web 2.0 presentation I was also following along with on Twitter the other presentation going on through my fellow Twitter-journalists such as @BryanPerson who was conducting a Twitter session for communicators. It was the first time that that’s happened at an IABC conference and it was like a sub-conference of information going on.

All-Star Session Tuesday Afternoon:
I chose Shel Holtz @shel for my late afternoon session and his topic News Releases in the Social Media Era. I’ve seen Shel present several times and he, like most of the all-star presenters, never fails to deliver. He captured the mood of the present state of print-publications, newspapers and magazines and then set about explaining how social media, the web and the up and coming workforce are changing the rules. I found it very interesting how IABC has sponsored the creation of standards for the social media news release, or as Shel said it should be called the Media Packet, as it contains more than stale quotes and boilerplates. It’s holds logos, video, images, key content, facts, and links to what others are saying on the web. My tweets: Traditional press releases are dead or dying as they were designed for print when most journalism is moving online. #iabc09 shel holtz as5; @shel sncr.org shel founding partner of society of new communication research. #IABC09 SNCR; Online press releases work to push folks to Corp. Websites and interview requests, but it must be news; @shel Mayo Clinic uses YouTube and wordpress to spread its news no video bandwidth used at Mayo US Dept of Labor on twitter; @shel ”Communicators need to learn SEO it’s the price of admission” learn how to use keywords. #iabc09 focus on first 250 words of pr; #iabc09 pressreleasegrader.com can be used to test your online press release before you release it. @shel can only analyze ones in English.; “PDFs don’t work as online press releases. Avoid them at all times.” @shel #iabc09; @shel IABC is sponsoring and pushing the social media release. Lots of controversy followed. #iabc09; @shel showing core facts, links, and multimedia (video, logos, images) of the social media press release. #iabc09; @shel research aids include tags, links, and what other people are saying about this release #iabc09 boilerplate, contact and SM links.; @shel PRXbuilder, Pitchengine, storycrafter, realwire are all Social Media Release creators. #iabc09 all trying 2 standardize.

Dine-Around: An IABC Tradition:
I chose Nettie’s Crab Shack for the San Francisco Dine-Around, as I like seafood. Little did I know the lack of seafood most Canadians from Calgary, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the like have access to in their hometowns. It explains why out of 9 of us at dinner only three including our host David Kilgman from the SF chapter of IABC where from outside the U.S. – Simon Hardaker from Great Britain and I had to explain why we chose the restaurant. It was a great meal and good company and we all got to know a bit more about each other. Adrianne Hartley Lovric explained how she was recently married, but was just now getting to met her in-laws as her husband was from Croatia. The International in IABC can be overemphasized, I learn how small the U.S. is in the world and yet I was asked repeatedly by those from other countries what Americans thought of our new president. I suggest the Cobb Louis salad at Nettie’s Crab Shack, by-the-way.

Wednesday Morning:
Sam Harrison @zingzone from Georgia got our creative juices flowing in his session the Three Ps for more Creative Marketing – passion, performance and pitch. My tweets can’t cover the inspiration I felt during this session and beyond as I’ve started on some project back here in office. #iabc09 where are we in a rut in our lives? Sam Harrison 3ps where are we not creative because of our “velvet rut” – our comfortable zone. Passion fuels creativity and we need to practice Kaizen and stretch our selves. 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Learn not to be careful- D. Arbus – take risks and be willing to take risks. 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Harvest your mistakes. Good mistakes = strong procedure/bad results 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Sometimes you need to go against the rules of your org. And personal rules. Stop worrying what other people think. 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Dave Eggers and the story of 826 Valencia – go against the rules. 3ps of marketing #iabc09; Don’t fool yourselves and get galumping (L. Carroll ) 3ps of marketing tap your childhood creativity and whimsy. #iabc09; Throwing paper airplanes with inspiration phrases images at each other in Sam Harrisons sessions. FUN #iabc09 3ps of marketing; (the paper I picked up by the way simply said “Oz” on it, I think it’s fate, as I’m a huge Baum fan and collect all the Oz books, serendipity!) Great inspirational stories of people looking at the ordinary in new ways. #iabc09 3ps of marketing find the opportunity in the ordinary.; Popping bubble wrap in Harrison’s session pop pop pop take the ordinary and turn it into extraordinary. #iabc09; Get outside and get outside ourselves. 3ps of marketing #IABC09 get inspired by nature. Playpumps.com; Good/bad stuff lists – you find the good always outweighs the bad. 3ps of marketing #iabc09 list what good stuff happened to u today and bad; Stop saying “they just don’t get it.” it’s our job to make sure they get it. Prepare, not about you it’s about the decision makers #IABC09; Ask if it’s a good time to present your ideas, and be passionate. – Harrison #iabc09; Missle defense system prior to presenting anticipate objections (missles) and your defenses – Harrison #iabc09 be persistent.

Closing Session:
I can’t pretend to do justice to Sir Ken Robinson’s, Ph.D.  closing speech to IABC. All I can say is buy his book(s). Out of Our Minds and The Element. You won’t be disappointed. If we all found our passion the world would be a much better and happier place. The conference ended fittingly with a standing ovation.

Let’ keep the dialogue going. What did you think of the conference, a session in particular, what have you done since the conference that was a direct result of attending? What did you think of the Twitter coverage or my summary?

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Blogging, Design, Tim's Observations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Made in America – Red, White and Green…

June 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

img_0490Last week ABC’s NIGHTLINE did an interesting story on how hard it is to buy products Made in America. As I watched I found it interesting how complacent everyone was about it. I remember watching John Ratzenberger and his Made In America series on the Travel Channel and thinking how proud I was that Americans still make top quality products. A search of “Made in America” on the web finds that maybe the future of American industry lies in new forms of energy. This video is cause for hope, maybe this economy will force America to embrace alternative energy. I recently returned from a trip to San Francisco and was amazed at the “eco-savviness” of the city. Recycling was prominent everywhere, the food court at the Westfield served you on china and with utensils to cut down on the paper plates and cups going in the trash stream. Hybrid taxis and no or low emission vehicles were everywhere. I understand from one of our cabbies all taxis in SF must be hybrid or natural gas vehicles by 2012. It just reminded me that we have a long way to go here in Pennsylvania. The future is alternative and thinking green and the East Coast of the US has a long way to go.

Filed Under: Environmental, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Learning to Just Ask

May 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Last night I spent the evening learning I’m not alone. Like me, there are a lot of people out there that feel uncomfortable asking others for money. I volunteer for two non-profits that depend on the kindness and support of others. The training I received yesterday explained how to listen to the donor and invite them to be a part of something bigger. I think I can do that. The two charities: Crossing the Finish Line which offers adult cancer patients a week-long respite from their treatments to reconnect with their families – they supply immeasurable joy to these families. The other, Flourtown Fire Company, the local volunteer fire company that I respond to emergencies with as a firefighter.

Do you have any tips for fundraising? I encourage you to check out these charities and let me know how you’d go about asking for help.

Until next time, Tim

Filed Under: Charity, Volunteering Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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