Design is generally a pretty subjective endeavor, so when starting a new project I like to do a little research into the subject in order to guide the generation of formal elements. Fortunately Technicolor offers a wealth of visual elements to play with, but the methods and appearance of color film varies a lot depending on the time. The earliest versions of color motion pictures involved three separate rolls of film—black, cyan, and magenta—that were layered together in order to produce the color projection. It’s a very distinctive look, and is wholly different from the colors you see in The Godfather: Part II, the last American film made using Technicolor’s dye transfer process. The early three-strip technique provided inspiration for the initial Winter Nights designs, involving a large and somewhat abstract W made from shaded cubes to reference a frigid, icy winter.

While working on this abstract and wintry version, we also pursued a more literal direction using film as the starting point. Keeping the W, this solution retains the grainy texture that characterizes many of those older movies. While each had its merits, ultimately we decided to go with the film-centric version for this year’s series, and a final version was created that made very clear the series’ relationship with film, as well as including the Technicolor theme in the graphic.

Using film stills in a campaign for Technicolor movies is a no-brainer, but this was not as straightforward as one might think. In the 1940s, Technicolor threw out a large volume of color negatives after the studios didn’t reclaim them, and unless they’ve been re-mastered those movies are now only available in black and white. Fortunately, we were able to find some great color images from Charade and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The beauty of these movies speak for themselves when you see them, and in order to try imparting some of that drama and motion in print pieces, I relied on careful crops.

One particularly seductive image of Marilyn Monroe offers plenty of details to highlight—Marilyn’s face, her eyes lightly closed, could be mistaken for being asleep when viewed alone. The diamond bracelet and thick gray fur are a glimpse of luxury, sensuality, and elegant excess. The full image, my favorite among Marilyn’s publicity shots for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, shows the actress dressed in red, wrapped in fur, and draped in diamonds. Her open mouth, even more red than her dress, completes a frozen moment of ecstasy, and was the perfect image to use for our Winter Nights banner.

If you’re a little rusty on your art history, Cézanne was a French painter from the 19^th Century whose artwork was from the Post-Impressionism period. Cézanne’s paintings bridged the gap between late Impressionism and the 20^th century movement, Cubism. His artwork is usually very recognizable because of his repetitive and exploratory brushstrokes. These defining brushstrokes are easily seen in the painting featured on the IndyGo bus, House in Provence, which consist of a single farmhouse set in the landscape of Mont Sainte-Victorie, a mountain in Cézanne’s native Provence in southern France. You can also check out the painting at the IMA, as House in Provence is currently on view!

If you happen to see the bus around town, snap a photo of it! Then upload your photo to the IMA’s Flickr group and send us the link to your  image by emailing it to web@imamuseum.org. We will then send you an email with a coupon code for 50% off to the Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial exhibition or Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria. Happy searching!

Meg Liffick is the Assistant Director of Public Affairs here at the IMA. Meg and her team tightrope a difficult role between the curator and the museum-goer. The curator, as I understand it, is the head-of-household in the gallery and the coming/going/hopefully staying artwork is his or her children. It’s the curator’s job to know the artwork inside and out. It’s Meg’s and her teammates’ job to translate that expertise to a viewer who doesn’t know anything about the artwork or any artwork for that matter.

So how do they do it? How can someone be motivated to come to an art museum? Well, they have a few tricks up their sleeve.  Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial is our most recent exhibition/huge marketing undertaking. Dial is an extremely bold artist. You won’t find political, social or historical commentary listed as any of the many materials Dial employs in his art, but they’re there. Because Dial’s work embodies such strong emotions, it’s the very kind of art some people are afraid of. It can make you uncomfortable—not because it’s vulgar or offensive–but because you might not know how to feel at first. We’re used to the art of the snap judgment, not the art of the deeply expressive Alabama welder.

Thornton Dial. Photograph by David Raccuglia.

All of our marketing materials (brochures, posters, radio spots, etc.) are designed here. “We do everything in-house. Everything.  That’s what’s special about the IMA—we all collaborate, no one does anything alone.” says Meg.

The marketing around the city for Hard Truths pushes the story or experience of the exhibition and Dial, himself. Meg explains, “Once they’re on-site we allow people to form their own perspective, but we need to give people a reason to come initially.  We wanted to communicate that these works were largely 3-D.”

"Stars of Everything," 2004, 98 × 101. 1/2 × 20. 1/2 in., Collection of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation.

The people involved with the IMA’s marketing have to create a way to honor and advertise the art, however, most -  if not all of them – don’t have formal art history training. Meg explains, “We don’t have art backgrounds, but we can communicate passion.” This exhibit is a completely different experience; one that not everyone would jump at initially. But it’s still relevant. It’s important to have some surprises in life, to (as our radio spots encourage) “Be amazed.” “Be inspired.”  I think Meg says it best, “Museums are here to fulfill the need that you have of finding spirituality, creativity and inspiration.”

Today (yes, Friday the 13th) a couple dozen Andy Warhol look-a-likes dashed around Monument Circle to the rockin’ sounds of The Velvet Underground’s ‘Run Run Run’ for a little thing we like to call a flash mob.

That leaves two kinds of people in this town: those who saw it, and those who didnt.

You were there? Awesome! You can upload your pics and vids to using your Flickr account. Missed the action? Don’t get your wig in a twist. Stay tuned for great footage and images here.

Call it a mod beehive, a jaunty porous blob, a bold yellow organ.  In the hands of Greg Lynn, form reigns…with materiality a close second.  Lynn is credited with coining the term “blob architecture.”

I first heard the name Greg Lynn last year while reading a piece in The New York Times Magazine about architects with an ardor for sailing.  Guys like Lynn and Frank Gehry regularly hit the waves in sleek, complex contraptions in a true test of human-made forms vs. the energies of nature’s elements.

Preview Lynn’s design perspective with this recording of a talk at the Univ. of Michigan.

Image Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com

I’ve always been interested in why advertisers do what they do. How do ideas get generated and why are they executed in the ways that they are? Where did the Energizer Bunny come from? And what exactly is Fahrvergnugen? 

Sometimes marketing campaigns are absolutely genius and other times they are absolutely ridiculous. If you’ve ever watched the show Mad Men, you’ll know that there’s a lot of thought and planning that goes into every message. A strong, clear, and creative marketing plan is the foundation for everything you see on tv, hear on the radio or read in a magazine; it not only articulates the messages (what), but it also outlines the audience (who), the objectives (why), the media channels (where), AND provides the reasoning for it all.

We’re just now finishing up the final points of our 2010 Marketing Plan. It’s been exciting to work on and also exhausting. In order to give you a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes work of museum marketing, I thought I’d share with you some of the basics of how we put together our plan.

Step 1: We broke the IMA apart into 10 different marketing categories.

1. Brand
2. Exhibitions
3. 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park
4. Public Programs
5. Membership and Individual Giving
6. Oldfields-Lilly House & Gardens
7. Events and Facility Rentals
8. Nourish Café and Catering
9. Retail – IMA Store, IMA Gallery Shop, Design Center, Madeline F. Elder Greenhouse Shop, Lilly Shop and the IMA online store.
10. New Media and Web

Step 2: We did a modified S.trenghs W.eaknesses O.pportunities T.hreats (SWOT) analysis for each. Full Disclosure: Because this is the part of the process that I like the least, the IMA’s plan only lists each category’s Strengths and Challenges (We’ve listed about 10-15 for each).

Examples of Strengths and Challenges:

Brand
Strength: New brand identity is fresh and dynamic
Challenge: New brand identity has yet to permeate public awareness

Membership and Individual Giving
Strength: New member-specific programming such as Member Night.
Challenge: Decrease in total IMA membership.

Step 3: We listed 10-20 marketing objectives for each of the categories.

Examples of Objectives:
Public Programs: Raise awareness of the Toby as a unique venue for movies.
Events and Facility Rental: Increase revenue from weekday facility rental. Emphasize the IMA’s meeting spaces.

Step 4: We identified the target audiences for each category. By determining the intended recipient of the message, it’s much easier for us to craft messages and identify media channels.

Examples of Target Audiences:
Nourish Cafe: Butler University and Marian College students
100 Acres: Nature and Wildlife Enthusiasts

Step 5: We crafted the Messages for each of the categories. (This is my favorite part of the process!) The Messages are the audience’s key take-aways from our marketing efforts. They communicate the value or benefit of the category (Retail, Exhibitions, etc.) and help to distill down our communications to  essential sound bites.

Step 6: We identified available media and created strategies for implementing and integrating Messages across the channels. By integrating core messages across traditional channels (print, tv, radio) and non-traditional (web, social media, grassroots), we hope that our campaigns will  have a broader reach and a greater impact.

Step 7 (Current stage): It’s now time to take the marketing plan to our colleagues in other departments and get their feedback. If all goes well, we will finish up our media buying, start on in print, tv, and radio production, and debut the new marketing plan in early 2010.

Stay tuned for updates on the unrolling of the marketing plan, the implementation of a new social media strategy, and the in-house production of a very exciting brand campaign!

Empty Billboard

As I’ve been writing the IMA’s 2010 marketing campaign, I’ve been trying to find ways to communicate the value of the museum experience. The IMA has a tremendous amount to offer the public: educational programs that range from films to horticulture classes, collections and exhibitions that span the scope of art history, 2 historic house museums (Lilly House and Miller House), ArtBabble and a bunch of other cool online initiatives,152 acres of gardens and grounds…The list is long, and well, that’s the blessing and the curse of marketing the IMA. It’s the breadth of offerings that makes it hard to distill the IMA experience into a sound bite or tag line for radio, tv, billboards and various other media channels.

I don’t think this is an IMA problem. In general, museums struggle to define the value of what they do to the average community member. Why would someone who has never been to an art museum before and who has no experience with art suddenly choose to visit? What can the museum provide to them? The benefits of a museum experience are complicated and personal. They depend on a myriad of factors, including expectations of visitor, fulfillment of expectations in previous museum trips, personal history, context, mood, etc. What one person may love about the museum, another may hate. What one visitor thinks or feels in front of a work of art, another may never know.

Often I wish I could put my personal reasons for loving museums on a billboard. I’d love to be able to tell folks about the time I walked into a gallery in the British Museum, saw the Parthenon Sculptures, and was moved to sobbing tears. I would like to tell them about a piece in the Denver Art Museum by an artist named Sean Landers that taught me about becoming an adult. I’d love to tell visitors that I don’t understand a lot of contemporary art, and that it’s ok that I’m confused by it. I’d also like to share that sometimes I go into the IMA’s American Galleries, sit in front of a portrait and make up a story about the life of the person in the painting. All of these things create my personal value of the museum experience.

While I know I’m not alone in some of my feelings, I’m certain that the “Meg-tested, Meg-approved” campaign I often dream about  is  NOT going to work. (Though my mom may think otherwise.) So, as I continue to work on the 2010 marketing campaign, I’d like to throw a bit of the thinking out to the group. Why do you visit museums? What is the value of the IMA? I have my answers, but I’d love to hear yours…

By the way, I just wanted to thank Nina Simon and her recent blog on Museum2.0. I found it helpful as part of this process. You may as well.

My first Pecha Kucha night, enjoyed from the squishy goodness of a giant red comfy sack in The Toby, was  like no other PowerPoint presentation I’ve been to. I left feeling inspired and liberated (since profanities could be shouted or whispered freely at any point). I’m definitely experiencing culture these days, maybe due to a motivating post by Meg. It’s true–as a marketer, and as a resident of Indy–we should all be experiencing the amazing galleries, games, plays, concerts, trails, architecture and exhibits offered by our friends. But why not also ask ourselves how as individuals we can create culture?

Matthew Hale, life-long resident of Indianapolis and graduate of Herron School of Art & Design, pitched his idea to make Indy a cultural landmark at the recent Pecha Kucha Night. “Letteracks: A 3D map for Indianapolis” is a coordinated system of 26 giant letter bikeracks, one for each letter of the alphabet, designed for the regional center of Indianapolis. The options for the use of these letteracks are endless–from field trip and jogging destinations to wayfinding and photo ops. Letteracks would add a unique system of nationally recognized landmarks to our city and increase the cultural language so-to-speak of the people in our city.

"Letteracks: A 3D map for Indianapolis"

While Matt didn’t win the $10k PK prize (in my opinion, he should have), his idea speaks to the idea of creating culture on a large scale. On a much smaller scale, as a child, I was a ballet dancer, I painted Tiger Lillies by the mailbox, I played the piano, I wrote poems and stories, I sang “Billy Boy” on the swing set, I planted mounds of pumpkin seeds and sunflowers in my garden, I took portfolios of pictures after a heavy snowfall, I read. Today, I rarely make time for these renewing acts or share them. What would Indy be like, if we each brought our own light and talents to our family, neighbors and city? What if we didn’t passively absorb culture, but actively created and shared it?

I heard an artist speak on the topic about a year ago in a sun-drenched gym on the Old Northside. “Do you have a picture to paint? A book to write? A dance class to take? Are you needed by someone?”

We should all have our day in the comfy sack, but I’m going try to make more time to create, converse and inspire.

Wilber in his comfy sack

]]> http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2009/11/18/creating-culture/feed/ 4 PK Letteracks IMG_2382_new http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2009/10/28/cokefaceliftsandbrands/ http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2009/10/28/cokefaceliftsandbrands/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:21:23 +0000 Meg Liffick http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/?p=9133

Image Courtesy of Freefoto.com

Soft Drink. Pop. Soda. What do you call that sweet, fizzy drink that comes in cans, out of fountains, and sometimes in bottles? I call it coke.

In Southern Indiana where I grew up, a Sprite is a coke, a Dr. Pepper is a coke, and a Pepsi is also a coke. The Coca Cola brand has resonated so much in my hometown that it has become the generic term for the entire category of product. Coke is in good company. Kleenex, Xerox, Google, and even Q-Tip have all created such strong brand identities that their trademarked names are now nouns. (Definition of brand identity.)

Brands like Coca Cola appear to be every marketer’s dream. They seem to need very little advertising and messaging. However, the truth of the matter is that Coca Cola still spends millions of dollars every year on tv and print campaigns for Coke Classic. So what’s up with that?

Like lawns, buildings and cars, brands need maintenance. No matter how great of a brand a product or company has, it needs to be updated and rearticulated in order to resonate.

In 2009, Coca Cola launched a beautiful, if slightly strange, series of commercials featuring bucolic fields filled with young people and singing, furry creatures. The tagline: “Open Happiness.” In a time of recession and war, the ad communicates that sipping a coke will lead to an imaginary world filled with smiles and giggles. Pretty simple. Very timely.

Like Madonna, Coca Cola is great at reinventing itself for the times. During the 1980s, responding to the end of the Cold War and inspired by the Reagan administration, Coca Cola launched their ultra American campaign. “Red, White, and You.” This is the 1980s at its best – patriotism and tight-rolled jeans

Learning from mistakes of the past (ahem New Coke), Coca Cola focuses on maintaining the quality of the product – the essence of their brand identity- while concurrently aligning their advertising to the changing times. Just like Joan Rivers, every few years the product gets a facelift.

So what do Coca Cola Classic and the IMA have in common?

Well, if you haven’t seen it already, the IMA is undergoing it’s own facelift or brand refresh. Over the course of the next few months we’ll be transitioning from our old brand identity:

to our new:

The IMA is a dynamic organization with a lot going on. We hope that the new look and feel of our brand will communicate the energy of the museum. Like Coca Cola, we know that the classic formula is always the best. So while the marketing may change a bit, the IMA and its mission will remain the same. We’ll still have over 50,000 works of art; we’ll still be free to the public; and we’ll continue to inspire creativity through art, nature and design.

All of this talk about brands got me thinking…What brands do you think are the best? Are there examples of museums with great brands? Let me know your favorites.

We enjoyed the peace and quiet of our little haven as the rest of the museum toiled away inside the big building yards away. For the first few months it seemed ideal. But as I spent more time in the cottage bonding with my department, I realized that I had met very few of my colleagues in other departments. More remarkably, those colleagues barely knew the members of the marketing department (some had been on staff for several years). It slowly became apparent that our insulated, cozy existence had led to misunderstanding and turmoil between our department and the rest of the staff. The physical separation was also a cultural separation. We were seen by many as the “others” – a department that utilized “corporate” strategies and in turn, diluted the artistic mission of the IMA.

Despite the unique physical separation, we were not unique in our department’s divide from the greater organization. Rifts between marketing departments and other museum departments occur frequently. Last year, I was reminded of this during an email conversation with a well-respected colleague at another museum. As part of the exchange, the person referred to marketing as “anti-community.” I have to admit, the phrase shocked me. I had never received such a blatantly negative response to the work that I do. I was crushed. I don’t think it was intended to be a personal attack, but I took it to heart.

As in many cases, I think the negativity was due to a lack of understanding about what marketing is. While we are hired for our talents in communicating with the public, often marketers fail in how we communicate with our fellow museum colleagues. Just like my early days at the IMA, we can become isolated and comfortable operating within our department and fail to reach out to the greater museum. Some of us need to make a better attempt at understanding the collections side of the operation. We also could to do a better job of teaching our peers about how and why we serve the mission.

Through my new series of biweekly blogs, I’ll attempt to do just that by sharing my daily experiences as an arts marketer. Over time, I’ll tackle questions such as: How do campaigns get created? How do we collaborate with other departments to accomplish our work? What are best practices in the field? What challenges do we face as we work to promote the museum? Who is our audience, and how do we engage them?

In the meantime, if you have any questions about marketing at the IMA, please ask. I’m happy to share.