Print in the Communication Ecology

It's like a galaxy.


It's like an embryo.


It's also like a pencil.

Humans live in activity space.
Activity space is physical space and information space.
The internet is the world's information space.
Information strings connect natural and built activity spaces.

The Screen is a physical window into information space.
Print is a physical window into information space.
The computer screen is in real time.
Print lives outside of time.

Exchanges connect activity spaces.
Information space becomes more articulated.
That's the ecology of money. That's the GDP.
That's Wall Street.

Exchanges connect activity spaces
Physical space becomes more articulated.
That's the ecology of real life.
Machinery, communities, people and the real economy.

Repeated exchanges create threads.
Bundles of threads create strings.
Tensions on strings organize new spaces.
New spaces disrupt and integrate with old spaces.

Time and motion are are full of noise.
When motion stops, some of the noise stops.
Outside of time, some of the noise stops.
A signal can make it through.

Books? Newspapers? Posters?

Are the best ways to capture the Other's logical narrative.
Logical narratives become lenses.
Lenses separate signal from noise.
Using different lenses is the most hopeful way of predicting the future.

Having a narrative is an operational definition of being human.
Control of logical narratives is an operational definition of smart.
Time and space are the independent variables.
Everything else is signal and noise.

In a recent thread over at The PrintCEO Blog Andy M said "Like a cartoon that appeared in a recent MAN Roland publication - two Gen-Y-ers looking at a newspaper and one says “Hey this is really cool - they’ve downloaded everything and printed it out for us!”

In Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman says "Typography has the strongest possible bias towards exposition: a sophisticated ability to think conceptually, deductively and sequentially: a high valuation of reason and order; an abhorence of contradiction; a large capacity for detachment and objectivity; and a tolerance for delayed response."

Manuel Castells in The Rise of the Network Society, says, ". . .TV appeals to the associate/lyrical minds, not involving the psychological effort of information retrieving and analyzing. . . .While print favors systematic exposition, TV is best suited to casual conversation. "
I say, "The internet is interactive TV + search"

What is a Publishing Center ?

It's not Graphic Design. It's Commercial Art.

It's time to stop saying graphic designer, unless you mean it. If you are training to become or educated to be an Art Director, (see below) say that. Besides, these days "everyone thinks they are a graphic designer."

Everyone else who gets money for their art is a commercial artist. Commercial art is how you make a living. Your mother understands commercial art. The Occupational Outlook Handbook, produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has it pretty right.

Artists create art to communicate ideas, thoughts, or feelings. They use a variety of methods—painting, sculpting, or illustration—and an assortment of materials, including oils, watercolors, acrylics, pastels, pencils, pen and ink, plaster, clay, and computers. Artists’ works may be realistic, stylized, or abstract and may depict objects, people, nature, or events.

Artists generally fall into one of four categories.

Art directors formulate design concepts and presentation approaches for visual communications.

Craft artists create or reproduce handmade objects for sale or exhibition.

Fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators, create original artwork, using a variety of media and techniques.

Multi-media artists and animators create special effects, animation, or other visual images on film, on video, or with computers or other electronic media. (Designers, including graphic designers, are discussed elsewhere in the Handbook.)

You can check out the what else the BLS has to say about Artists here.

The related occupations:

Other workers who apply artistic skills include architects, except landscape and naval; archivists, curators, and museum technicians; commercial and industrial designers; fashion designers; floral designers; graphic designers; interior designers; jewelers and precious stone and metal workers; landscape architects; photographers; and woodworkers. Some workers who use computers extensively, including computer software engineers and desktop publishers, may require art skills.

I would include one more: The Bullshit Artist. More commonly known as the Sales Person. The BLS calls it Sales Engineer.

It's funny. Design schools used to be Art schools. Then they became all focused on "professional preparation" and forgot that they were Art schools. Maybe because Art was a hard sell to parents. Or that no self-respecting admin wants to say their outfit teaches commercial art. Or in the rush to teach "computer skills" they forgot the point.

More recently the buzz is Liberal Arts. "We've got to teach the students theory." Meanwhile there are very few in the liberal arts faculties who understand what theory is anyway. And "talk and chalk" teaching is pretty broken. And the reality is that the most efficient way to get learning to happen is 1. doing 2. thinking about what and why you're doing it. 3.Do it some more. Sounds like making art to me.

But whatever the reason, Art schools stopped using the right word to describe what they do.

It's ironic that the successful professionals are Artists. And every kid who wants to get in the field wants to become a great Artist. And the most sustainable path going forward is to be a self - employable Artist.

Some schools have figured it out. Sooner or later all the schools will figure it out. Or they won't be able to charge $30,000 a year to learn to be a graphic designer, much less a commercial Artist.

Is it this?


Or is it this?


The correct answer is yes.

The Secret of Business Development . . Pt.1

If you don't get it, try these: On the web, here. In a book, here. In the Language of Communication Ecology, here.

If I were a printer . . . Pt 1

If I were a printer, here's what I'd do.
If I were a printer, I would set up a school.
Lots of money, no measurable deliverable.
If things go wrong, it's the customer's fault.
"Give me more money and I'll get it right next time."
or
"Give me the right customers and I'll get it right
. . .oh and I could use some money."

Meanwhile, Kids need to learn how to think.
That's education.

Meanwhile, Kids need to learn how to do.
That's apprenticeships.

Like days of yore, kids will work for nothing to be apprentices.
They compete for the opportunity to work for nothing.
Sometimes, they even pay for working for nothing!
In "higher ed", they call this "graduate education."

Sometimes, they have to be paid.
But always for a lot less than the value they produce.
They will work, 60 hours a week.
And say, "thank you."
They will love what they are doing.
And say, "thank you."
They will come up with the "next big thing."
And say, "thank you."
In high finance and law, they call it "associates."
In medicine, they call it "interning"
In commercial art, they call it "interning.'
In everything else, it's usually called "new hire."

In days of yore, it was called "apprentice."

But whatever you call it, the deal is
"Teach me how to do what I want to do
and I will give you a couple of years of my time, for cheap.
Then move on. Or get on a track to be a "partner."
Or start their own business and raise their families.
That's what Ben Franklin did.
That's what Gutenberg's apprentice did.
That's what the founders of American newspapers did.

Meanwhile, K- PhD is an awesome business.
First, it's mostly a protected market.
That's how they get to raise the price every year.
Second, Everyone "knows" that "education" is a "must have".
Always good to be selling a "must have."
Third, hardworking parents and politicians willingly pay almost any size bill.
If they can't afford it, they will borrow to buy it.
If they can't borrow it, the kids will borrow to buy it.

Meanwhile, nobody knows if it works.
It's like the old days of advertising.
Remember, "If you could only figure out which 50% is useless. . ."
But that was then, this is now.

Meanwhile, printers are looking for business models.
Every business is in the same business.
The business of making money.
But, what you deliver is not always how you make money.
The Ivy League: non profit hedge funds who deliver education.
GM: a bank that makes cars (Thanks, Joe)
HP and Xerox: toner and inkjet companies that make hardware.
K-12: Baby sitting and filtering out the good ones that delivers "education."

So . . .if I were a printer, here's what I would do.
Become an education and community development company that makes Print.

Darn! There really are no new ideas. The future really is here, and really is not evenly distributed. Thank you to Erik from Canada for pointing me here. I hope they are getting some of the ed money floating around.

The Version Dad, The Printer Loved

Same story, different places.

Sales is Not Business Development is Not Sales

The purpose of sales is to find buyers for products.
The purpose of business development is to find products for buyers.

Sales is a linear process.
Define the steps, so they can easily be measured.
Model the mechanism of how X gets from Step A to Step B.
Make the purchase as frictionless as possible.
Deliver the product as promised.
Collect the money and repeat.

Business development is a network process.
Define the activity spaces.
Define the threads and strings connecting activity spaces.
Clarify the focus of the customer's activity space.
Catalog the transformation mechanisms in your activity space.
Discover the ways that possible transformations are consistent with your customer's focus.
Those transformations are the kernel of products.
Prototype, test and evaluate new products within an addressable market.
Have a path to scale.

Sales - Define the steps, so they can easily be recognized.
Suspect - ("target customer") is a person who potentially needs Print.
Prospect is a person who has requested information
Customer is a buyer who has completed a transaction.
Client is customer who has completed a number of transactions.

Business Development - Define the nodes of the network
A node can be said to exist in two spaces:
The Environment Space and the Actor Space.
E - The Environment Space
A - The Customer Space (in the context of Print sales)
B - The Printer Space (in the contest of Print sales)

The Actor Space and the Environment Space is further divided into
PS - A Physical Space
CS - A Cognitive Space

Model the communication exchange mechanism.
A= Customer Space
B = Printer Space
E = Environment Space
POV = point of view
CE = Communication Exchange
ITO = input - transformation - output is the primary mechanism of communication exchange

Actors can be either individuals, communities or organizations.

Increase the number of communication exchanges.
No. of CE = Actor's perceived risk/ Actor's perceived rewards
The proximate risk is lost time. The secondary risk is delivery failure.
The proximate reward is time saved. The secondary reward are defined by the Actor who purchases the product. They may include increased status, reduced stress, or increased income.
Exchange events are the result of proximate pressures.

Communication Event "Moving X from Suspect to Prospect"
POV from B = Printer Space
Event: Printer needs prospects
Output to Customer Space: Information sent (email, marketing brochure, sales call, web site)
Transformation in Customer Space: Decision made to ask for information.
Input to Printer Space: Information request - (estimate request, paper sample, production question)
Feedback: If request is estimate request, B moves to prospect bin. Anything else moves B closer to prospect bin. No request for info keeps B in suspect bin.

POV from A = Customer Space
Event: A problem has entered the Customer Environment Space.
Input to Customer Space: Customer Actor needs information.
Transformation : Customer decides to ask this printer for information.
Output from Customer Space: Information request
Feedback: Was the risk/reward ratio acceptable? The risk is wasting time. The reward is getting the information required. If the time spent in getting the information was less than the time saved by getting the information, the "brand" of the Printer goes up. If the "brand" goes up, the likelihood of further exchanges increases.

Communication Event "Job ordered and delivered"
POV from A = Customer Space (business)
Event: A need that must be met has emerged
Input: Internal or external client has requested X
Transformation : Information is collected from clients and transformed into a collection of digital files, pricing, specifications are formalized.
Output: Files and purchase order sent to printer.
Feedback: If the time/money invested is less than the value to the customer of the delivered product, another exchange is likely. If it is more, another exchange is less likely.

POV from B = Printer Space
Event: Product has been purchased.
Input: File sent, specifications agreed, price agreed.
Transformation: Printer turns information into product
Output: Product delivered as promised.
Feedback: If the time and money invested is less than the price received for delivered product another exchange is worth pursuing. If the time/money invested is less than the price received, another similar exchange is not worth pursuing.

More to come....
The Defensible Value is the Network.
Designers + production + business mangers = business development.
Too busy with sales to do business development?
Business development is the operational definition of innovation.
Print Injects Information into Physical Space.
The Web Injects Information into Information Space.