Todd Coats, Chief Creative Officer
Bio
Todd loves variety. Over the past 20 years he's been a designer, art director, illustrator, animator, environmental designer, broadcast designer, producer, creative manager, brand manager, entertainment producer, creative director, chief creative officer, painter, writer, educator, motivator, strategist, funk musician, rapper, loving husband and father. His work has been recognized by The Addys, The Tellys, Graphis, AIGA Graphic Design USA, How, Creativity, ShowSouth, the AIGA North Carolina Design Show — and many more.Articles
-
The reason God made Hip Hop
If you haven't yet, check out Girl Talk. This DJ mixes EVERYTHING into a seamless party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLOAcMVmCiU
Read about him here:
http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2008/pl_music_1609
Buy the new music here:
http://www.myspace.com/girltalk
And go to the show at the Cat's Cradle on October 13th.
-
Curious Capstrat—No compromises
At Capstrat, we’re one big collection of opinions. Coke versus Pepsi, Nike versus New Balance, Toyota versus Honda and just about everything in between.
Our collective differences make us who we are. We’re opinionated. Just ask. Well, really no need to. We have views on just about everything, but we also like to hear yours too.
So, Curious Capstrat. What’s one thing that you won’t compromise on?
Mine? A toss up between 300-thread count sheets and dating supermodels.
Okay maybe not much of a toss up.
-
SUCK UK Design
Check out this cool site from the UK.
I love when designers give special attention to seemingly insignificant objects. The terrorist tea pot takes me out. Enjoy!
-
8 Surefire Ways to Kill Creative Thinking
1.You could fail to define the box
How can you think outside of the box if you don’t know what the box is? As creative for commerce, we must have a purpose to our work or it’s pedestrian. The first step is to accurately define the problem. Otherwise, it’s creative for creative’s sake. That’s called fine art. While this work can be fun and expressive, as a creative professional it’s wrong to assume that idiosyncratic equals hard working.
2.You could fail to see the big picture
Learning your client’s business and unique challenges will give you unparalleled perspective to provide the best advice. Creative work is always better if you understand the context of its use. Also, by knowing the big picture you’re a better resource at keeping work on strategically solid ground. Like all of us, clients tend to wander. We’re better when we assist in keeping focus.
3.You could censor yourself
This is delicate. On one hand you want to prove your chops at bringing work that challenges the norm. On the other hand you shouldn’t risk castigation by appearing out of step. Push the work enough to make your stomach hurt. That’ll show you care about progressing your client’s business without the risk of Xanax toxicity.
4.You could rush into making stuff
Remember the fast talking FedEx guy? Ad legend Amil Gargano created him. Amil was one ofmy graduate school professors and a real tough cookie. During a review, he told me I had gotten too busy making an ad and had overlooked the problem. BUSTED! It was true. I’ll never forget that. We often get seduced by beauty, style dujour or sensationalism and forget to solve the real problem. This relates to number 2 above. If your client consistently jumps right into tactics without strategic foundation it’s a sure fire sign they either don’t have a strategy or aren’t making you privy to it. Both are fantastic ways to make crappy work.
5.You could believe, “It’s just a (fill in the blank).”
I hate (yes HATE!) when a creative person fails to see an opportunity to do great work. Some will often rationalize the limitation by believing, “It’s just a brochure.” Or, “It’s just a small space ad.” Or, “They never pick anything good, why bother?”
Lee Clow (Chairman and CCO, TBWA) was once asked his secret for getting 30 years of good creative work approved by clients. The Creative Godfather simply replied,“Only put good creative work in front of them.” Sounds easy enough. Unfortunately, our short-term objective of responding quickly or not appearing disagreeable will often outweigh this. Remember: Good work trumps everything.
6.You could fail to be audacious
Good relationships need flirting. The kind of freshness that comes with a pleasant sense of intrigue. We should never forget to surprise and delight our clients by bringing the unexpected solution. More agencies lose business because they become complacent. With the Agency of Record model disappearing, firms can’trely on good will to carry them. Clients expect your best, always. We must earn our place every, single day.
7.You could fail to ask “Why?” or “What’s the better way?”
At industry association meetings I often hear creative people complain about being labeled as order takers. If you don’t want to have ideas spoon-fed to you, step up. Ask “Why?” a lot. It also helps to KNOW WHY you’re doing something. Embed yourself in business. Think like your client and be their trusted friend. They need to know you care about their business as much as they do.
8.You could fail to use your knowledge and experience
Your brain is a fantastic repository of images, sounds, smells, experiences and feelings. Use that in creating your work. Use the experience of other experts too. Creative connects human to human, motivates, clarifies and above all compels. That’s why experience is so important. Otherwise your work is white-bread. We all know how unhealthy that is.
What other ways will gloriously kill creative thinking?
-
Bargain Icons
I was thinking about widely recognized icons. Those of us in the creative industry are driven to hopefully invent a lasting impression. The mother lode is to become embedded into pop culture. While looking into some of the more celebrated jewels, I discovered their intrinsic value is bargain basement. Their deeper, chord-striking value is…ahem…priceless.
Dumb graphic luck
While I suspected it to be graphic urban legend, I discovered the bargain-priced Nike “swoosh” story to be true. In case you haven’t heard it, Nike’s logo was created in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at Portland State University. She met Phil Knight (future Nike CEO) while he was teaching accounting classes. Davidson agreed to provide design services for $2 per hour. Looming production deadlines forced Knight to settle on the swoosh after rejecting others. At the time, he paid $35 for the logo and said, “I don’t love it, but it will grow on me.”
Today, most global brand evaluators place Nike in the top 15 most recognizable logos.
Speaking of bargain symbols…
The ubiquitous yellow smiley face was created by Harvey Ball in 1963 for an insurance company’s employee morale campaign. Ball never attempted to trademark it. Soon “Smiley” fell into U.S. public domain. His total income for this round grandpa of emoticons was a whopping $45. Have a nice day, Harv. : )
So, serendipity plays a big part in making some icons. Right place, right time, right voice, right marketing investment with the moon and stars in alignment.
It’s called what?
Heard of Spam? Of course. Ever wondered about the name? Kenneth Daigneau, the brother of a Hormel vice president, dreamed it up when the first can of luncheon meat was produced in 1937. Billions and billions of canned pink goodness have been sold since. Matter of fact, each year more than 90 million cans are sold in the U.S. alone. That’s three cans every second!
Daigneau was paid $100 for the name. What a bargain. Without him, it’s hard to imagine it would have survived with runner-up names like Crinkycrinky or Canned Flappertanknibbles.
The wee-wee of a generation
Kurt Cobain was the voice of a generation, but the tiny penis of a generation belonged to three-month-old Spencer Elden of Los Angeles. Spencer was the baby on the cover of Nirvana’s iconic Nevermind album. The cover’s photographer, scrambling for the swimming baby, called his friend Rich Elden. Mr. Elden had just become a new dad. Baby Spencer gets tossed into a pool. Dad got paid $200. History is made.
Each of these examples demonstrates the creation of a potentially empty thing. Without hundreds of millions invested, we may not have ever heard of these phenoms. Makes me wonder. With enough bank, can anything become pop culture history? Paris Hilton, anyone?
-
Update your ¡@#%#* Website!
While minding my own business on three different occasions of surfing the web I came across some great art gallery sites. My wife and I are art lovers. These artists were good and the prices reasonable.
With each discovery I said to myself, “I love this gallery!” Each site had a section to purchase on-line.
I bit.
Sadly each time, the on-line purchases didn’t go through. So I called. And each time all three galleries said, “Oh, we don’t do that any more. I don’t know how you got this number.” Newsflash: I got the bleeping number ‘cause YOU put it on YOUR web site to SELL YOUR CRAP.
Like all good cobblers’ children, Capstrat struggles to build fresh content throughout our various web properties. We try really hard but still could be better. At least we see the value.
This is puzzling. You design and program a site, then host it. All these events cost money and time. Why don’t people take them down after they no longer do business?
It’s not like they have to unprogram it. What’s your favorite Web peeve?
-
The Cult of "What’s-Its-Name"
It’s a sweltering Sunday afternoon at the mall. Inside The Apple Store it’s clean, cool and buzzing with hipsters that resemble that “Hi, I’m a Mac” guy. As a Mac user, I stop in occasionally to give props to Jobs and Co. for a brand well done. Sometimes I give mad props if I’m feeling like parting with money.
One of these hipsters glides past me on his cell phone. His conversation caught my ear. At first it sounded idiotic, then I realized prophetic.
“Yeah, I’m here” he says to his friend. “I’m at the iPod store.”
Wow! In a brief second, this yahoo reduced The Revolution of Zen Cool that Apple had been building to a single product.
Was this odd? Do others understand Apple’s greatness? Can you be an Apple user without being an enthusiast, or are we creative folks blinded by pretty stainless steel?
-
Feelin’ all shades of green
After a recent trip to the grocery store, my wife commented how genius the stores are to be selling recycled, reusable bags.
“Huh?” I said. “Smart yes, but genius?”
My wife believes that permanent bags reduce the stores’ cost in buying paper or plastic bags. Okay, I get that. She also believes the shopper has to buy a branded one from each store.
Again,“Huh?”
“I feel uncomfortable taking a Harris Teeter bag into Trader Joe’s. I bought at least one from each store” she says. She went on to say that it’s genius to SELL them, not give them away. Most cost a buck or two, so cheap enough to impulse buy but with enough value to keep– unlike its paper or plastic cousin.
See how sustainable design also proves to be smart business? What do you think? -
Trippin’ on Acid Park
My family visited Acid Park last weekend. These ginormous whirligigs in an overgrown field near rural Wilson, N.C. are masterful works of passion. They are pure, honest and heartfelt. A little trippy and deeply knotted in folklore, too. Driving away, my wife told me the origin. I found other explanations online that matched her tale.
One story starts, “Legend has it, a girl was on her way home from the prom where she had dropped a little acid. At the final turn, she ran off the road, wrapping the car around a tree.” Another account goes on to say, “She suffered severe head injuries, and trapped by flames she burned to death.” A decaying car on site appears to authenticate the stories.
So why giant whirligigs?
“The girl's grieving father nailed reflectors to every surface around his home,” says one visitor. Adding more color, another tells, “When her father heard ofher death, he went insane. He made 60–foot towers of steel and old cars near the area of her death. He also made statues with weird objects like forks and spoons.”
Evidently, this is spectacular at night. “I stopped in the middle of the road,” says one circumspect visitor. “There were millions of reflectors everywhere, even in the trees. Without going further, we turned tail and ran.” A jauntier visitor believes, “It's supposedly the greatest place in the east to trip on acid because the way the reflectors blow in the wind.”
I guess reflectors also attract paranormal activity, too. “If you visit Acid Park around 2:00 AM on prom night you can hear screams,” reads one site. Another recounts,“…my car shut off twice, my radio changed stations by itself, and my navigation system told me I was in Mexico. Then floating leaves wrapped around my car like a tornado. We came back later and saw white haze in the middle of the road. It got closer, called out ‘Johnathan’ and disappeared. I'll never go back!”
“You can come to your own conclusion…” declares a visitor, “but there is definitely something out there.”
Well, what’s out there is a legend chalked up to good ole fashioned word of mouth. Social media sites – where I learned all this – are modern gossip fences. Tales grow taller, faster and go further. While the hoopla around AcidPark is completely fabricated, the art is very special. The creator, 80-something-year-old Vollis Simpson, is a lean man of few words who has likely not heard of social media or even acid. His pieces have been exhibited at major national art museums so please don’t call it Junk Art. "I buy all the material I use,”bristles Mr. Simpson. “If you start with junk, all you're gonna build is junk.” As many of us learn news through social media channels, that sounds like good advice. Obviously, he’s done something right.
Whether or not you believe in urban legends, Acid Park must be seen and definitely talked about.
-
Open Letter to Design Graduates
Design education is a good thing. When my time came to fly the university nest, I remember thinking how I would set the world on fire. My naïveté initially worked to my advantage. I was cut some slack due to in experience. But I quickly learned that experience in inexperience would not build a career. Over the years of interviewing, teaching and mentoring young, eager talent I picked up a few simple, disputable truths that I sincerely hope can help you, a new graduate.
1. Write.
No one’s expecting you to be Tennyson or Tennessee Williams. Heck, not even Tennessee Ernie Ford! Simply be able to convert a complete thought to a well-written sentence. Writing is as much of a design process as creating a logo. It’s designing an emotional connection with words. This one skill has life-long benefits. We receive lots of resumes. It’s unbelievable how many have spelling and grammar errors. Even to the point of spelling our company’s name incorrectly. C’mon, you gotta get that right.
2. Soak up life.
Eat, drink, bathe in, touch, hear, squish between your toes and feel everything you can. This provides a repository for inspiration. I firmly believe original ideas come from original inspiration. Use your experiences to influence your work. It’ll have more heart, you’ll have more fun and be far more pleasant to be around.
3. Make everything and everyone better than you found them.
That goes for the planet, your colleagues, younger talent and most importantly, you. I believe that we should push others to do their best work, yet push ourselves even more. I also believe you should work with people better than you. You’ll do your best work and likely get rewarded with more good work. However, if you find yourself working for someone (or something) you don’t respect, leave. Your soul will thank you.
4. Concept always wins.
Good design is a memorable, smart solution. You get there with a bulletproof concept. If concept and “pretty” are in a cage match, concept will always win. Concept is the sticky part of an idea. It is NOT a Photoshop filter. Seek to strengthen the concept in everything you do. I promise you, no one will hand you an award-winning project. It’s up to you to really excel.
5. Focus on the right thing — achieving your client’s mission.
While we often forget, we wouldn’t be here without clients. Thank them often by always doing your best work. You’ll be repaid with the opportunity to do even more good work while earning their trust and partnership. It’s only with those qualities that your true brilliance shines. Live by this and I promise your reputation will thank you.
All Articles