Speaker 1: We have a graphic right here. No, no graphic. Yes, there is.

Speaker 2: What are you saying? It's playing right now. Is there music going on right now?

Speaker 1: Yes, there's music. Yeah, it is. Pitch this. Let me explain. Pitch this. Oh, yeah. All right, pitch this. Ben Burns and I were talking about how we speak differently about design since I went to a design school. I got my formal training. And you pick up all that art speak. You learn how to present just by watching other people present. And though Ben has a media arts degree, it wasn't as concentrated. So we thought it would be fun to introduce a new segment that we'll be rolling out every once in a while. What we'll do is Ben will be shown a frame. He'll have a few minutes to think about it, and then he will present it to me. I will critique it in terms of his presentation. And then I will pitch it back to him. And so you guys can see how we talk about design work a little bit differently.

Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's definitely something that I've struggled with, you know, that learning the visual vocabulary is really, if you don't go through a fine arts program, it's very difficult to pick up kind of organically because these are words that you rarely use. And so as I watched Chris pitch ideas, I'm just like, wow, I wish I could do that. And so this is kind of an effort of me learning and at the same time hoping, helping you guys learn.

Speaker 1: I used to feel like if I did all the work and the work was good, it should speak for itself. The work should speak for itself. It shouldn't need you to explain because where in the world do you get to follow along your poster, your main title, and explain it to the audience to give them all that context? I thought that if you explained it with all that art speak, it's a bunch of BS and nobody believes it anyways. And it's because you were lazy. And now that I'm a little older, a little bit more mature, I realize the power of language and how specific you can describe something and to kind of paint in the gaps to fill in the imagination. That's your power as a presenter, as an art director, somebody who can work with clients. And that's a skill. So if you're a great designer and you can't present the work, you can't articulate the ideas and the thinking behind it, you're only going to go so high in the corporate chain. You're going to only attract a certain kind of client. Okay, so I have to give Ben a little bit of context. This is for a property for one of our clients and it's for 450 Alaskan and this is in Seattle and it's by the water. It's in an industrial part of town, part of Pioneer Square. And it's by the water in Seattle. So there's a little context here. How many shots of this do we have Molly?

Speaker 2: Three.

Speaker 1: Three. Okay. So, Ben, are you ready to go?

Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1: Okay. So we won't cut to Ben's face because I think the audience will need to look at this. And so Ben, go ahead and pitch it to me. And you have say a minute or less. Okay. Okay.

Speaker 3: Go ahead. So when we went to the new nautical, with vibrant colors and the use of historical typography, these geometric sand serifs, we've combined kind of two contrasting ideas. The nautical aspects of this is deep in history and you can see this in our detail the way that we've used the nautical maps, the way that we kind of tap into historical type. And then we're bringing it into the modern age with vibrant pops of color and minimalistic layouts. And I think our hero really kind of sums it up. It's this older gentleman. He looks a little bit like he's salty, you know, that he can tell these stories of life on the water, but he's not kind of faded into obscurity yet. The new nautical.

Speaker 1: Ben, you sweating? A little bit. Do you need some deodorant afterwards? Oh, God. How did Ben do, you guys? Ladies and gentlemen, how did he do? I think it would have been nice if you zoomed in when he was talking because it was kind of hard to see. And I'm definitely going to need it because my monitor is only eight inches and it's like three feet away from me and it's tiny on the screen. OK, so let me answer a couple of questions and then we're going to go and give Ben a little review and critique. And I want to give you guys a heads up, Molly and Aaron, I want to get your feedback first and then I'm going to say some things, OK?

Speaker 2: So people are saying good job, Ben. OK.

Speaker 1: Graphic burrito. I don't know what that even means. Hey, guys, I'm late. OK, cool. All right. What was your reaction? How did Ben make you feel about that particular design? Aaron?

Speaker 4: I thought he did a good job because, I mean, to me, I don't know much about design, so it just kind of looked cool overall. Like if I were to describe it, it would be very simple words like cool and fresh or whatever. But Ben really brought it to life for me and it's like a whole story now I can understand and I see the color mixing with the classic nautical thing. It was a simple, tight explanation and I think it was good.

Speaker 2: Molly? Yeah. I wouldn't say I'm like sold over this whole thing. Like I guess he did a good job and I wrote down some of the words that he was using to describe it and which was nautical, vibrant. I did like when he described the persona and this salty guy because that's where I really got into it and felt like who he was selling this and who the product was for, who he's pitching this to.

Speaker 1: I thought you did a great job. Now, Ben started out by calling this the new nautical. And I like that he gave this a theme for us to bite into. So he's giving the client a lens to look at this work, then he started to talk about it. And I think he started off really strong. And I think he was starting to run out of ways to talk about this. Then he shifted over to the salty guy. And I know that my sons use the word salty to describe me a lot. So I don't think of that as a positive connotation. What does salty mean to you guys? Like a little bitter? A little bitter?

Speaker 4: Live life?

Speaker 2: Yeah. But I don't think he was... I don't take it...

Speaker 4: In this context though, I know what he meant. Like sea, salty, he's a captain, he's got story.

Speaker 2: Maybe weathered. Weathered.

Speaker 3: Weathered is probably a better word for that.

Speaker 2: But salty. Yeah.

Speaker 3: Salty does have negative. That's kind of how life on the sea is though. Those dudes are pretty salty. Yeah. You're right. They're not optimists by any means. Well, now you're stretching it, right?

Speaker 4: A little bit.

Speaker 2: Well, people are saying it means grumpy, bitter.

Speaker 1: See, it's not a good word, guys. It's not a good word. So that's something you want to think about because this is the client.

Speaker 2: So weathered was what you wanted to say.

Speaker 1: Right. So let's try it again. So whatever. He's a bit rough. I get that. So, Molly, can I see? Sorry. Geez, you're killing me here. Can I see the two pages, please? Okay. That's one. And get into the other one. Erin, don't cut to me because I'm going to lean really close into the camera right now. All right. Okay. Lots of ways to talk about this. And I think what I heard Ben say, it sounded a little pitchy to me, like he was trying to sell me. I like a more straightforward approach and just kind of say it as it is and fill in the gaps. So what aren't we seeing? What aren't we able to connect? Has everybody got that? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: Okay.

Speaker 1: Should I cut to? Are you going to do yours now?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to do mine.

Speaker 1: I'm just seeing what else I can say to Ben because there's a learning opportunity. You're trying to help them understand the design, not just use design speak. That's a tricky part. So if you say, we think Helvetica is totally fresh for this. You kind of have to think, well, why would that matter to them? You have to remember that the person sitting on the opposite side of the table is not an artist, is not a designer, though they have creative tendencies and they appreciate good design. Using very specific design language in some instances where it's not telling a larger story is not necessarily a good thing. Gotcha. Their eyes might roll over.

Speaker 4: I thought of something like- Go ahead. When you say visual vocabulary, you don't mean like design specific words about typography and kerning. You don't mean those words.

Speaker 1: What we want to do is we want to take something we don't know and attach it to something we do know. So when you talk about type and you use another type term, that's not going to help people. But if you talk about design and you connect it to something that they know, as in Kevin Costner Tatanka, then we have this shared visual language and we can talk about that. And that's what you're trying to do. Yes, we're trying to bridge that gap. This direction is really inspired by the proximity to the harbor. And when I think about the harbor and the bay, I think of two things. One are sailboats and I think about container ships. This is a working harbor. This is not some yacht club. And I think it's reflective of the culture and the people we're trying to attract. Take for example, the man. The man is our typical client. He's sophisticated. He has a worldview. He's seen things in his life and doesn't care about the glossy trappings of a glamorous life. This is truly the Seattle market. Now when I talk about containers, shipping containers, we pull out a few examples here of really inventive uses of container architecture. And you can see that on the Puma display. And so we look at the topography. It has a very utilitarian aspect to it. And we like that. And I think we can mix that in. We're also trying to find fresh ways to bring in nautical elements and a bold graphic pattern you see in the herringbone pattern behind the man on the left, my left, I guess, in the tube. And you can see that. And I think we can integrate those elements to give it this kind of pop, this fresh graphic flavor. And we're taking what you would find on maps. I think it's called topology, where it's the depth of what the terrain is underwater. And we want to use those as a graphic motif and as a device. Lastly, if you can see right there, 450 and 450, the red 450 next to the blue bottle, it's reverse. And the inspiration for that was from looking at sailboats. And they have beautiful topography on the sail mass. I think that's what they're called. But because they're translucent, you see it flip backwards. And I think we can introduce those kinds of elements as kind of a nod to sailboats without it being too on the nose. Of course, the deep blue indigo color is reflective of the sea, but I think it's a fresh take on that. And hopefully, it creates a little bit of surprise for you. And that's what I have to say about this.

Speaker 3: Woo. I thought you did great. The only thing that I felt was missing, which you've done before and I've noted before, is literally telling people how something feels like in their hand. So, I was kind of missing that texture and I mean, obviously, I didn't do that. But in your pitches, you've done that before and it's been really impactful. And I've seen people do this, you know?

Speaker 1: Yep. So, describing the other senses, what you hear, what you might touch, what it feels like. Those are all good things. We spent a lot of time on these stylescapes. And those of you guys aren't unfamiliar with the term as I was a couple of years ago, you can think of them as mood boards, tear sheets and things like that. We put a lot of time and energy into selecting these images. So, I need to be able to pull them out. I need to surface them. I need to highlight them and give the client something to think about. Because later on, we want feedback from this. And if they don't even look at that one corner, what's the point of us including it? And I want to be very deliberate and intentional, not only in what we put on a page, but how we talk about it. Because I want that feedback to come back.