Archive for November, 2010
November 27, 2010
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[“It’s Complicated”. You can buy the print here etc.]
So somehow or other you found yourself online in a big way.
Somehow or other you decided, like millions of other people, that if the future is online, it would be silly not to join in. So you decide to get with the program.
And so you get yourself hooked up with the usual stuff… a blog, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, and whatever Robert Scoble is using that week. And then wait for that aforementioned future thing to start happening.
While you’re waiting for that future thing to begin, you can’t help noticing that certain people in the same field as you– people far more successful and well-known than you, people who you aspire to be like one day– have fifty times the amount of Twitter followers as you do. Or whatever.
So you spend the next two years of your life trying to get as many Twitter followers as those people. Not only do you fail, meanwhile, your wife leaves you, your car is repossessed, and you have to move back in with your parents.
The futility of “Keeping up with the e-Joneses”. You’re better off spending that time and energy trying to have a “smarter conversation”. Of course you are.
[Bonus link:] Seth has a few thoughts on the subject, as well. Well worth a look.
November 25, 2010
7 Comments
[One of the cube grenades I did for Rackspace etc.]
Here’s something to think about this Thanksgiving:
A year and a half ago I coined the term, “Cube Grenade”, and since then, we’ve tried to build a business around it.
Art that you hang in your cubicle, in order to affect change, in order to start a conversation. Art that you “toss” into the work/corporate environment, that hopefully causes a small “explosion”. Hence the term, Cube Grenade.
“Art with purpose. Work with purpose”.
Exactly.
Thanks to the Internet, the nature of work is changing in so many amazing ways, and we’re all so damn lucky to be caught right in the middle of it.
As a cartoonist, my work is totally inspired and informed by this– this is exactly why the work took the direction it did.
And your work, whatever it may be, should also be affected in the same way. I can’t think of a better time to be alive; I really can’t.
So besides friends and family, what better reason is there to celebrate Thanksgiving? Seriously…
November 18, 2010
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[Welcome to my worldview etc…]
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This cartoon was sent out today in the newsletter. The idea was inspired by the book by my friend, Seth Godin.
Read Seth’s original 2005 blog post on the subject. It’s considered a classic.
We live in HUGELY exciting times. You do know that, right?
5 Comments
[download the printable version here etc.]
This is the latest cube grenade I just did for Rackspace.
It’s one of my favorites I’ve done so far. [More Rackspace work is here.]
I hope you like it, but it’s OK if you don’t. Here’s why I’m partial:
- I like the elegance of the drawing.
- I like the way it’s talking about something specific to the business (i.e. the cloud), not just some vague, “Go Team!” cultural platitude.
- I like the direct honesty of it. “We live or die by the cloud” etc. is basically the God’s honest truth; it doesn’t matter if one agrees with it or not. That IS Rackspace’s business strategy, in black and white.
- It just works. Straight and to the point. It does everything a good cartoon ought to do.
I am enjoying my gig with Rackspace. Even if it’s still early days, they’re letting me play around with a new, HUGE idea. Yes, I am stoked.
November 10, 2010
10 Comments
So this is my latest #EvilPlan for my client, HNI Insurance.
I drew the cartoon above.
What I’m going to do is recommend to the CEO, Mike Natalizio to get it made up into a stack of signed, limited edition prints. Say, 30 or 50 of them.
Then get them framed.
Then send them off as gifts to the the 30 or 50 most influential people in the trucking business. As a conversation starter.
“Let’s talk about the issues, People.”
The trucking business is full of messy issues [e.g. people dying in road accidents every day, which HNI is in the front line of], so why not address them more openly, more forthrightly?
Like it says in “Tribes”, by Seth Godin, the way to succeed is to be a leader.
HNI hired gapingvoid because they wanted to be more successful.
And I’m saying right back, OK, if you want to be more successful, you have to take a leadership position on something that matters.
Which means having a “smarter conversation”.
And these prints would be their opening salvo.
None of this is rocket science, all that’s required is that a decision be made.
A decision to be a leader. A decision to have a smarter conversation.
Not rocket science.
Easy.
[PS: We’ll see what Mike says. At time of posting this, Mike hasn’t seen the cartoon yet. I’m surprising him! Heh.]
[The Smarter Conversation archive is here.]
November 7, 2010
2 Comments
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water: Another cartoon for hackthephonecompany.com.
Something deliciously wrong about hipsters who get overly attached to their iPhones– or to any Apple product in general. A rich vein for any cartoonist etc.
[The #hackthephonecompany cartoon archive is here etc.]
3 Comments
I just did this cube grenade for Fizz, the well-known Word-Of-Mouth marketing agency [They did all that ground-breaking stuff for Pabst Blue Ribbon etc.].
This idea is so simple… do I really have to explain it? Exactly.
[Commission your own cube grenade here etc.]
1 Comment
[download the printable version here etc.]
Another cube grenade I just did for my client, Rackspace.
They were a small company not that long ago. They no longer are. Figure it out.
[Rackspace cartoon archive.]
November 5, 2010
1 Comment
The latest cartoon. The latest campaign from gapingvoid.
hackthephonecompany.com
AT&T’s monopoly was broken apart in 1984, when the company was split into seven parts.
But for iPhone users, AT&T is pretty much a monopoly again, with their exclusive deal with Apple.
AT&T, Verizon, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodaphone, it really doesn’t matter. They’re generally expensive, they’re restrictive, often the service sucks, so you’re always trying to bypass what they have on offer– trying to hack your way around it.
Line2 with their VoIP service, is trying to do the same.
We all are.
Click on the link (or click here) and see what we’ve done. There’s just a fun cartoon right now–
It’s a start. We’re hoping to make this the start of something bigger. Much bigger. We want to “hack” the phone company. So do you. So does everybody else.
[PS: Here’s a link to what NYT Tech writer, David Pogue, has to say about Line2.]
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A cube grenade I just did for our ciient, HNI Insurance.
A lot of HNI’s trucking clients operate with profit margins of around 2%. Ouch.
I like the cartoon just because it’s brutally in-your-face and to the point. No messing around.
Of course, the easiest way for their clients to increase their margin, is to lower their risk. Which is where HNI comes in. Ker-chiing.
[More HNI cartoons here etc.]
![[download the printable version here etc.]](http://gapingvoid.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/rackspace-1011-03-2k2.jpg){kind=link}
![[download the printable version here etc.]]( http://gapingvoid.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/rackspace-1011-02-2000j.jpg){kind=link}