The Abramsky Report

So Thursday May 9th sees the launch of www.TheAbramskyReport.com. A political OpEd site that will host and exclusively publish four purpose written articles every month written by the witty, socially inquisitive and politically eloquent journalist and author Sasha Abramsky.

The journey has been intense as barely 6 weeks have elapsed from initial brief to full corporate identity creation, approval and implementation. This whilst developing the website in parallel to creating promotional electronic and printed promotional assets.

The overwhelming challenge has been rather typical, one of at brief determining deadlines and timelines that even with wiggle room seem plausible and effectively feasible, to the scope of the project expanding into a fully automated, multi asset venture including full site population and degrees of automation, membership and coding far beyond that anticipated. Add multiple social media platform creation and expected timeframes fly out the window.

With site launch debut party deadlines fixed, venue selected, clients invited and food catering organized the battle lines are set. It's the nature of the job, this is the pure essence of marketing and commercial art, the requirement of creativity on demand and on time. Profoundly different for the production of art for the sake of art. This is the harsh reality of working all hours to ensure the best product is available within the allotted timeframe, utilizing the resources available. And perhaps this is the very essence of what makes running a design and marketing consultancy intoxicating and fun. The working as a team, the daily challenge of having to effectively and continuously problem solve, the making of decisions based on practicality and feasibility rather than aspiring to impractical esoteric objectives that often form the basis of art. As a commissioned artist, as well as head of MiDESign, I often grapple with considering the differences of comportment and mindset that each different discipline brings.

The undoubted benefit of deadline pressure in these situations is the realization that in most cases clients, as particularly in this, are incredibly diverse, interesting and usually thoroughly stimulating and fun to work with. Rewarding to have all involved, client and team working towards the common objective of producing the best work possible, and within the allotted time, even with deadlines looming!

So now enough musing as we still have a few days and much to do....