Archive for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category

The decoderettes have a monthly book review club, and this month, the lovely Jasmina perused The Selby is in your place by Todd Selby. 

Here is a snapshot of her book review – please enjoy!

Todd Selby has amassed a cult following on his website theselby.com . A voyeur’s delight, this website indulges Selby’s curiosity for the way personal style is reflected in private spaces by taking a peek into the homes and lives of the rich and famous, the not-so-rich and almost-famous, the artistic, bohemian and creative set from London to Paris, LA to Sydney and a bunch of places in between. The Selby is in your place is kind of a ‘best of so far’, and is the first tangible copy of Todd’s work.

This isn’t your average Vogue Living/Home Journal-type documentation where houses are over-styled and manicured to within an inch of their life (although a few of them are, especially those housing interior designers!), rather a snapshot of modern, lived-in, cooler-than-thou homes with a focus on the people who inhabit them and their personal flourishes – cute teapots, shoe collections, pets, a narwhal tusk, a backyard tipi, OCD-organised workshops… all the bits and pieces and little details that make houses, homes.

And if rifling through people’s possessions wasn’t quite intimate enough for you, Selby accompanies each profile with a hand-written questionnaire and his own watercolour illustrations of the subjects and anything else that catches his eye.

Probably the closest you’ll ever get to hanging out in Helena Christensen’s kitchen or playing guitar with Lou Doillon…

Jasmine says: Cute, slick and quirky – this book is my new obsession and is sure to provide inspiration for your own home, or at the very least incite some major domestic envy!

Must see: Karl Lagerfeld’s home library (he also owns a book store next door), Yoon and DJ Verbal’s jewellery collection, Christian Louboutin’s workshop.. You really need to peruse this from cover to cover!

Check out the decoder website:  www.decoder.net.au

To find out more about this book and the author, please visit: www.theselby.com

You can also visit Amazon, to purchase this book!

Making Ideas Happen:
Overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality
Scott Belsky

In Making Ideas Happen, Scott Belsky shows us that an idea is worthless if you can’t make it happen. Though it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that great ideas inevitably lead to success, in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

Whether it’s the perfect solution for an everyday problem, or a bold new concept for a creative masterpiece, you must transform vision into reality for an idea to have value.

Here’s some of the ways Making Ideas Happen can help change the way you work:

1. Overcoming “reactionary workflow” to start pushing ideas forward.
2. Letting go of the myth of the lonely creative genius.
3. Pushing through the ‘project plateau’… to finish!

Making Ideas Happen uses a simple equation to illustrate its point: Creativity x Organisation = Impact.

For example:

100 x 0 = 0

(heaps of creativity but chaos means that no idea is ever fully realised)

50 x 2 = 100

(less creativity but great organisational skills makes for greater impact)

Here’s some tips to consider:

• Keep two lists: to help allocate your ‘energy’
• Choose five projects that matter most
• Make a daily ‘focus’ area
• Don’t dwell
• Don’t hoard urgent items
• Create a responsibility grid  (p 66)
• Create windows of non-stimulation

Tracey says: Decoder is an ideas business, and we understand the difficulties faced in bringing our ideas to life. We all need to be creative. And we all need to be organised. While this book has been written to help creatives with the organisational stuff, it has some gems for all of us.

Must read: ‘Done’ walls (p92), backburner (p35), effective self-marketing building respect (p151), self leadership (p202). If you are a member of the Decoder Library, please feel free to borrow Making Ideas Happen to help make your ideas a reality.  Just email tower@decoder.net.au with your request.

Also check out: actionmethod.com for organisation tools to use on your iPhone/iPad or online; and the99percent.com

Visit Decoder at: www.decoder.net.au

Convergence Marketing: Combining brand and direct for unprecedented profits. By Richard Rosen, 2009.

It was at DMA 09 that Nick and I first came across Richard Rosen. He was delivering one of the Leadership Series presentations at the conference, and it was arguably the best thing we heard all week. We both sat spellbound.

Rosen explained how the art of brand advertising and the science of direct marketing could combine to create profit and strengthen brand loyalty. It was the theory that Decoder lived and breathed every day – but we had never heard anyone articulate it so clearly or concisely.

So of course we rushed back and bought the book.

It was the manual we had been waiting for. Through common language, better processes and practical tools, Rosen showed how brand and direct can combine to become more effective than either could be on its own. Even the most die-hard brand advertising manager would have to sit up and take notice.

Rosen walks us through his ‘Velocity Scale’, demonstrating how incremental developments in consumer benefit statements, calls to action and incentives (offers) can work beside the brand to yield real returns.

So what’s velocity about? Basically, it’s about speed. More specifically, the increase in the speed it takes between receiving a message and acting on it. If you want your customer communications to work harder to deliver ROI results faster, this book is definitely worth a read.

But if you prefer for us to present the approach to your team – just ask Kate or I for the 45-minute workshop we’ve put together. We’ll take you through the process step by step and even talk about how you can add this thinking to your briefing process.

You’re welcome to borrow Convergence Marketing from the Decoder library right now, or you can purchase your own copy from amazon for $US17.80

Visit Decoder at: www.decoder.net.au