Nancy Duarte interviews author Alex Osterwalder

Listen in as Nancy chats with Alex Osterwalder about his latest book, Business Model Generation. Alex offers insight on how to create and manage successful business models, and explains how his visual approach allows him to illustrate complex concepts clearly and beautifully.

Topic: Book Reviews, Business, Interview, Strategy, Video
Tags: Alex Osterwalder, Business Model Generation, create value, sucessful business, synergy, visual thinking

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Embrace Life

Several days ago, one of my co-workers sent out a link to a video entitled “Embrace Life”, a commercial promoting seat belt use. Apparently The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership decided that it was time for a seat belt awareness campaign that didn’t use the shock and awe approach. Sussex must be a lot like where I grew up, because the only seat belt awareness messages I’ve seen involve threat of punishment… and punishment by way of fine, personal injury, or death.

The video immediately arrested my attention,  a feat nearly impossible when I am two cups deep into a pot of coffee, and juggling multiple tasks. But by the time the father’s expression changed to concern, I was reacting emotionally to this thing… in my cubicle, of all places. How embarrassing.

I thought to myself, “Don’t blink. Just finish the video, collect yourself, and get back to life as usual. And in the event of a total emo-meltdown, there is Kleenex nearby.”

But I could not go back to life as usual. For some reason I found myself thinking about it the following morning while brushing my teeth. I couldn’t stop thinking about how quickly that video got inside my head. Why did it have such power over me? Was it luck, or was there a formula to charging something that fully with emotion? And how could I bring that same level of emotion to my own creations?

As it turns out, it was no accident. On the production company’s website there is a “Making Of” page, where I learned the method behind this masterpiece.

“I wanted to create a visual metaphor addressing how a single decision in a person’s day can greatly influence both their own and their loved ones’ lives. Choosing to film the story inside the family living room represents the feelings many people equate with their own car, in that it represents a level of safety and protection from the ‘outer’ world.”

This was true for me. Instantly I was thinking about my own family and friends… the people I owe my personal safety to the most.

“So to create the emotion of this dramatic moment, I wanted to tell the story using slow motion to allow the audience the time to be drawn into the film’s world and to let them connect with and project their own feelings onto the scenario playing out before them. I wanted to give the audience the time to breathe, to absorb our message and using slow motion was the right technique to allow this to happen.”

Ahhh so that’s how I got so absorbed. It takes a lot to yank us out of the hypnosis of our routines, but I was completely halted in the first 15 seconds.

“I wanted to keep the audience in the moment and so we kept the film’s look to be subtle and natural, complimenting Luke’s onset lighting.”

Although I didn’t notice it at the time, that may have contributed to my initial impression… that the piece seemed to have no wasted energy. No wasted pixels or motions. Every component has purpose.

“Embrace Life’s music … started with Daniel giving examples of the music he felt best optimised the emotion and tone of Embrace Life and from these guide tracks Sid worked his magic until the right blend was achieved.”

There is a moment of tension when the piano changes key at the 50-second mark… and then there is the impact… and the glitter in the bowl showers down around them like pieces of safety-glass or the fragments of one’s fragile life.

The moral of this story is obviously “fasten your seat belt”… but for us creative types, a secondary message exists: Slow down… eliminate clutter… take the high road to emotional impact and really ENGAGE your viewer. Respect your audience. Don’t threaten them… create imagery that they will WANT to remember and maybe even share… and if you can make them want to call their families after your presentation, well then everybody wins.

Read the full “Making of” page: http://www.alexandercommercials.co.uk/Makingof.html

Alexander Commercials: http://www.alexandercommercials.co.uk/index.html

The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership http://www.sussexsaferroads.gov.uk

Topic: Delivery, Design, Diary, Message, Video
Tags: embrace life, emotion, engage, memorable

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What Does It Mean to Resonate?

Language and power are inextricably linked. The spoken word pushes ideas out of someone’s head and into the open so humankind can contend with adopting or rejecting its validity. Moving an idea from its inception to adoption is hard but it’s a battle that can be won simply by wielding a great presentation.

Presenting those ideas can either evoke puzzled stares or frenzied enthusiasm. The outcome is determined by how well the message is delivered and how well it resonates with the audience. After a successful presentation, you might hear people say, “Wow, what she said really resonated with me.”

But what does it mean to truly resonate with someone? While doing research for Resonate, I learned about lovely  phenomenon in physics. If you know an object’s natural rate of vibration, you can make it vibrate without touching it. Resonance occurs when an object’s natural vibration frequency responds to an external stimulus of the same frequency.

Below is a beautiful visualization of resonance. My son poured salt onto a metal plate, then hooked up to an amplifier so that the sound waves traveled through the plate. As the frequency was raised, the sound waves tightened and the grains of salt jiggled, popped, and then moved to a new place, organizing themselves into beautiful patterns as though they knew where they “belonged.”

How many times have you wished that students, employees, investors, or customers would snap, crackle, and pop to exactly where they need to be to create a new future? It would be great if audiences were as compliant and unified in thought and purpose as these grains of salt.

And they can be. If you adjust to the frequency of your audience so that the message resonates deeply, they, too, will display self-organizing behavior. Your listeners will see the place where they are to move to create something collectively beautiful. A groundswell.

The audience does not need to tune themselves to you—you need to tune your message to them. Skilled presenting requires you to understand their hearts and minds and create a message to resonate with what’s already there. Your audience will be significantly moved if you send a message that is tuned to their needs and desires. They might even quiver with enthusiasm and act in concert to create beautiful results.

End Note: Visualizing sound is called cymatics. Evan Grant did a lovely TED talk implying at the end that maybe even the earth was formed from a sound.

Topic: Book Reviews, Message, Strategy, Video
Tags: chladni plate, experiment, frequency, language, physics, resonate, science, transform your audience

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Pecha Kucha Night San Jose | Tue 6/29 @ 7 p.m.

What are you doing this Tuesday, June 29th? Can you say PECHA KUCHA?

Yeah, neither can I. But you don’t need to say it, you just need to go to it!

The third Pecha Kucha Night – San Jose is this Tuesday, June 29.
The event is from 7-10 P.M. at the Sonoma Chicken Coop in downtown Campbell.

In case you don’t know about Pecha Kucha yet, an excerpt from their website describes it best:

PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

Presenter Line-up:

Derek McCaw, Producing the Stage Version of “Dead Man Walking”
Jonathan Crabtree, Why
Crystal Yan, Student, Youth and Social Entrepreneurship
Al Kovalick, DIY – Making Your Own Neon Sign
Jason Salizar, Filmmaker
Florian Brody, Every Image Gets Its Credit
Ric Bretschneider, The Story So Far

Summary:

Date: Tuesday, June 29 Time: 7-10 P.M.
Location: Sonoma Chicken Coop
Address: 200 E Campbell Ave, Campbell, CA 95008
Phone: (408) 866-2699

Hope to see you there!

Topic: Diary, Event
Tags: 20 images, 20 seconds, chit chat, Event, networking, pecha kucha, public speaking, San Jose

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Cinematic Color Choices

Here at Duarte, we help people create cinematic presentations—you know, ones that are the opposite of those word-saturated bullet-rich presentations we have all come to dread.  So, if you want your presentations to be cinematic, why not take a cue from a current movie poster trend and make your color scheme cinematic, too!

The June 25^th edition of Entertainment Weekly commented on a recent trend in movie poster design which pairs the complementary colors blue and orange together for visual impact.

© Entertainment Weekly

While movie posters may be leaning toward these colors lately, using complementary colors to achieve a powerful effect is not a new technique.  Colors that sit across from each other on the color wheel (complementary colors) have high contrast, and contrast, as we teach in our workshops, draws the eye of the audience.

Need to help your audience focus on a particular option?  Consider using a contrasting color to help draw the eye.  The greater the contrast, the easier it will be for your audience to know where to look.

Obviously, this needs to be done within your corporate or predetermined color palette.  No going maverick here.  Usually a well-designed template color palette will have a selection of colors that include some high contrast colors to help you tell your story while still maintaining a consistent overall look for your presentation.

So, for your next presentation, consider adding a bit of contrast to make your message worthy of the big screen.

Topic: Design, Strategy
Tags: cinematic, Color, contrast, impact, movie posters, trend

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