There was me with abcdefghijk ambitions I wanted to pursue. Then at 16, at a high school career fair, I decided I wanted to enter the mass communications industry, to be a fashion/graphic designer or a journalist, pretty much anything that would allow me to be imaginative on a blank canvas.
However, the mass communication industry was deemed too competitive and my biological authorities told me that in order to succeed you need to be outstanding, and I got the message that I was not outstanding enough for them to be proud to say "My daughter is a designer for xxx and is earning xxx and she's doing way better than your children (latter line was never said, but we know how Asian parents are kind of all about comparing. I love you, mom and dad, I know you guys want the best for me.)"
See this to know what I mean:
So here I am, in my finance and economics degree, which is probably as mainstream as your friends trying to be hipsters in Starbucks. But hey, it's all about the ching-ching right?
In a world where fine art and business professional are two different zones altogether, with one spreading colors and the other spreading numbers, it almost seems that both of them do not go along. Interviewees are told to dress as professional as possible, which professional means black, white and 50 shades of grey. A tinge of pastel color on your nails would make you too outstanding and distracting to the interviewers. This is what they said.
Founders and Funders inspired me to write about this post. As the world becomes tinier through communicating within a 4-20 inch screen and things are moving up to speed, we are drawn to visually-appealing material, most of them being distracting from your main focus. Our short attention span has made us choose to side anything that is more visually entertaining as compared to reading slides or books.
F&F uses infographics to send a message. It motivates people, gives people the information they need and they can read it again and again without scrolling a couple of pages. They can hang it on their wall, make it their morning mantra, and feel like they own it for the rest of the day. All through the visuals.
It's funny how people tend to look down on art or mass communications major because of the income they receive. I personally think graphic designers deserve major respect. The art they create is so unique but yet people do not appreciate it because they do not understand the element of creativity.
With individuals being the primary drive of this Globalization 3.0, and startups on the rise, people are reaching out to the audience to be their source of capital via crowd funding and taking sales pitch to a whole new level with cool comic arts, funky items, innovative things rather than chasing the big banks for the bread.
It's even cooler when we see intellectuality in comics. (e.g. The Oatmeal, xkcd, ExistenialComics) (http://waitbutwhy.com isn't a comic, but deserves an honorary mention)
And the weirder the better too (e.g. Joan Cornella). And financial bloggers have taken the hint (http://thereformedbroker.com)
And here's another link why visual content will dominating the market.
Thus, it is probably why some lecturers are exclaiming "Death by Powerpoint" and getting students to be as creative as possible with their professional presentations, like making a song, doing poetry slam and performing it out. Everyone has seen the Powerpoint, used it and are never excited about it (except for the pretentiously passionate presenter).
I think it is time for a change in the mindset of professionals, that being a little colorful in the business field isn't illegal. Be a little adventurous with your company like the way you actively manage your stocks (sometimes). A little creativity won't hurt, and I'm sure it would make you a more likable company in the long-run.
But until the baby boomers understand that dreadful boring is no longer in as generation Y rise within, we will still have to deal with Microsoft Office Suite trying its best to be as exciting in presentations.
Art is the hipster turning mainstream.
Till then, I may protest for this change with my pastel colored nails.
