As Carson approached the stage to give his lecture, I began thinking to myself what does this so-called “Augmented Reality” do? Well, Augmented Reality is emerging as a new and potentially new powerful medium. Computer vision plus object recognition that allows a smart device user the ability to project digital content into real world scenes. Think the 2001 blockbuster movie, Minority Report. Tom Cruise walks into the gap, and almost simultaneously, he is bombarded with ads and an AI personal shopper asking him how he’d like the jeans he just purchased. Thats Augmented reality! And while we currently aren’t that advanced in it, we are very close. Currently VW has an ad campaign that uses Augmented Reality. The Results will blow you away.

So what does this mean for the integration of print media and digital content? It means the sky is the limit! Imagine getting a brochure on a company and literally having the CEO walk out of the page and give you an introduction to the company before you even turn to the inside page. WHOA!

We’re on the heels of FutAd: Direct Connections – an event that is important to Ad 2 DC as part of the DC Ad Club.  The fact that it is the second major annual event in a series that earned us a major sponsorship is reason enough for our community/industry to give notice.   The abridged version of this e-mail is that if you would like to help out in anyway then please open the attached promotions guide and do as many of the activities to help promote as you can.

However, if it helps, I want to share with you the inspiration and true value of FutAd to all of us as young professionals in the DC Advertising Industry. I’ve heard DC as being referred to as a sleeper town for advertising – that’s bull$hit! We are one of the smartest cities in the world and, though we’re not as big as an L.A. or NYC, we
are the world’s epicenter for strategy. Think about that. The entire marketing field is based on strategy. This gives us a unique foothold to assume a very valuable position in the global industry. Maybe you think this sounds a bit exaggerated? Look at Living Social. Look at the Dulles Technology Corridor. Look at the DC Entrepreneurial Start
Up scene! It’s incredible. We have an amazing opportunity to show how damn good DC is and how our Strategic brand of Creativity and Intelligence/Experience is the flint that lights the torch to deliver as much, if not more, value than any city in the world. FutAd has remained a DC signature series and, no matter what happens, it originated here. It’s something we can talk about, just like Ad 2 DC as a whole. Let’s sell the event out. Let’s take pride and ownership for what we’re all a part of.

FutAd is on Thursday February 16, so less than two weeks away.  I’m buying my ticket today and I suggest you do the same.

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Ad 2 DC will host FutAd: Direct Connections, sponsored by Rocket Fuel Inc., an event with networking, food, and a panel discussion highlighting the future of marketing, communications, and advertising, on February 16, 2012. The Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts’ Georgetown Campus (CDIA – Georgetown) will host the event, where an expert panel will analyze the DNA of a modern day brand experience. Now that consumers have deeper levels of engagement with each other via mobile, applications, new networks, and emerging technologies, marketers have a whole new breadth of insight on how to engage consumers. FutAd will address how advertisers are using that data to shape the future of the industry.

Panelists include:

• T.C. Conway – Director for Innovative Marketing at the Discovery Channel
• Matt Goddard – CEO for R2integrated
• John Schultz – CEO of NetStrategies
• Anthony Pappas – President and founder of Pappas Group
• Melanie Spring (Moderator) – Founder of Sisarina and the #DCTweetup Group

The event will be held at CDIA – Georgetown, with a networking reception from 6:30pm – 7:30pm, followed by the expert panel and Q&A from 7:30pm – 9:00pm. To purchase tickets and for more information about FutAd: Direct Connections go to http://www.dcadclub.com.

“This is an exciting time for both organizations,” said Justin. “ The Epsilon Nu Sigma Chapter and Columbia Business Exchange has progressed tremendously in the past year respectively. We have no intention on stopping now”

Under Jones’ leadership, CBX and ENS will be incorporating several more social events into the calendar as well as undergoing new website and rebranding respectively.

Today however, it can be argued that the modern designer has changed this way of thinking. Now, the idea of artistic prowess has been substituted with its computer counterpart, technology and for lack of a better word, laziness. So why has today’s designer strayed so far off the begotten path? People today are the off product of our own self-indulgence. The computer, an object that was supposed to have aided in the push for bettering ourselves, (from a design point of view) now limits it. From my standpoint, cripples the artistic mind, limiting it to rationale in points and pixels. What happened to the artists’ of the world? Are we now an extinct race? To this notion, I say no! In order to grow in our design we must reconnect with our former selves. Today, professors are asked to teach aspiring designers, theory, history, type and the principles/fundamentals behind it (and not necessarily in that order). For prerequisites’ these designers are asked to take classes in drawing and painting but cannot relate it to how this might possibly be helping them in their design. To them, it is a chore, limiting them to only what they believe is the ability to design in a computer environment. What is forgotten is that the computer is built to abide to us, not us to it. We must be able to think literally out of the box and three-dimensionally. So, what does this have anything to do with reconnecting with our artistic roots and myself? The answer, quite simply lies within Petrula Vrontikis quote…”Practice safe design, use a concept”. Interpret it how you will, but she is right. In order to practice safe design, you must start out with a concept or better yet, the ability to first commit the pencil to paper.

Without the ability to first write down a thought process, how can you possibly satisfy a brief (and to that effect, why do you just only want to satisfy it)? The job of the graphic designer is not to give the client what they asked for, but to give them more than what is specified. To go beyond putting color and images into a program and calling it design, but to also be able to have a rationale behind it. To be able to study all aspects of the design and to convey the message effectively.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the Taproot Foundation has additional offices in New York City, Chicago, Washington, DC, Seattle, and Los Angeles and is known for providing pro bono service outside of the legal community. Since 2001, the Taproot Foundation’s Service Grant Program has supported more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations with pro bono services valued at over $58 million. The Taproot Foundation also operates the Pro Bono Action Tank, a program that helps corporations, professional service firms, trade associations, and professional schools create pro bono service programs. 

DC SCORES builds teams through after school programs for over 800 low- income DC youth at 27 schools by instilling self-expression, physical fitness, and a sense of community.

” I’m very excited to work on this project,” says Jones. “Giving back to the community in anyway I can has always been something that I strongly believe in. It’s not always about what you get, but want you can give. As a business man, I can sometimes get wrapped into the inner workings of the company. It’s nice to be able to give something back.”

Justin Jones brings more than 7 years of visual communication and design experience to The Taproot Foundation. As lead graphic designer, Justin will be responsible for producing DC SCORES updated brochure.