Many of my favorite TV commercials use the Incongruity technique to create something that not only strikes your funny bone but makes you remember the advertised product/service. (Again, see Old Spice Man: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.)

Remember “Think outside the box”? Today, you wouldn’t think of using that phrase with your clients, but you could offer to come up with something “crazy fresh.”

The next time you’re thinking up a new ad, design, or pitch, or even a new way of styling a photo shoot, think about how you might use the Incongruity Theory of Humor in your own work to create something memorable—something that “sticks.”

Something viral this way comes? (with apologies to Wm. Shakespeare)

FUD was first used in IBM advertising decades ago, asking the prospective customer whether they believed their job would be safe if they chose to buy another company’s computing products. Microsoft, ever the innovator (!), adopted the technique and soon became known for using FUD in all their ads and promotions.

The reason that many ads still use FUD to drive their messaging is that in lots of cases it works. It plays on paranoia and our human instinct to want to fit in. Studies show that when we are made to feel uncomfortable, one of the things we do is spend money to feel better. (Extra points for ads that weave humor into the FUD message; see Old Spice Man.)

OneLove is a way of thinking about the opposite kind of messaging—advertising that shows a product or service that brings more joy into your life. Apple’s advertising uses OneLove messaging. Think about iPad ads; they don’t say “Your friends will shun you until you own one of these.” Instead, they just show happy users doing fun stuff. Consider ads for Disney World, or for the Toyota Sienna, or for Foster’s beer, or for your favorite sports team. They are a celebration of life, reminding you of the joy you can experience if you buy those products.

As we can see, both types of messages work. It all depends on the target audience and how the advertiser wants them to feel. The next time you see an ad think about what it’s doing. Is it making you feel good? Or bad? And what does it make you want to do? (“Turn off the TV” is one of the acceptable answers.) What do you think would be the best type of advertising for your client? (Hint: first, think about who the target audience is.)

Take a look at this site and see. These may not be the first magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of fruits and vegetables, but they’re the first I’ve seen. Check out the way these common food items change and pulse as we watch. Broccoli can look like fireworks, and mushrooms like jellyfish …

… it’s a good reminder that things we are used to can look very different if we take the time to see them in a new way.

The next time you’re trying to debug that CSS code, or talk to a difficult customer, or figure out why that filter isn’t working on your image, stop for a second, breathe, and try to look at the situation with fresh eyes. Who knows what associations will pop up, triggering your brain to come up with a new solution?

Enter a couple of paragraphs of your writing and let the “I Write Like” analyzer tell you which famous writer your prose resembles. Try it now! It even gives you the code for a “badge” you can post on your blog or Facebook or wherever.

Then, for more information about how the statistical analyzer works, read the interview with creator Dmitry Chestnykh.

(I entered the lyrics to the Beatles’ song “Give Peace a Chance” and it said I write like James Joyce!)

Prompted by an outcry over the use of Papyrus for the subtitles in the movie AVATAR, this article from last week’s BBC News Magazine online relates the passions—pro and con—that were provoked. Various other heinous examples of crimes against typography are included.

In 2009, the Swedish retail giant IKEA changed its signature typeface from Futura to Verdana—a font that had been created by Microsoft specifically for screen display.

As in other cases, widespread outrage ensued, with bloggers and tweeters madly weighing in:

“On Aug. 26, Romanian design consultant Marius Ursache started an online petition to get Ikea to change its mind. That night, Verdana was already a trending topic on Twitter, drawing more tweets than even Ted Kennedy.”

It must be noted that some opinionators were more sympathetic.

While typography has a rich history that goes back to the earliest written forms, new typefaces are always arriving on the market, making it tempting for designers to stray from the classic choices. And, sometimes, with good reason. Depending on the target audience and the branding message, it may be perfectly reasonable to select one of the very latest typefaces, especially if it can be effective across a wide variety of corporate needs—website, business cards, magazine and billboard advertising, price tags, serial number labels, Hi My Name Is badges, exterior and interior signage … the list goes on.

I found some great Best and Worst lists. Here’s one that I particularly like because it includes my favorite two Worst examples—#2 and #3, where companies invested in a logo redesign when what they really needed was an overhaul in corporate practices.

If your scroll wheel (or your two-finger touchpad action) is in good shape and you have an extra half hour, check out these collections from Smashing Magazine, an online resource for web design.

• 80 gorgeous typefaces for professional design, in no particular order, based upon suggestions from designers and web developers all over the world (scroll past the well known fonts at the top of the list to see more unusual examples later in the list)
• 60 effective typefaces for corporate design, offering a much quirkier selection than the first list
• 30 new typefaces for corporate design—just what it says: new typefaces

I saved the best for last, but this one isn’t strictly typography. If you have read this far, you may be interested in two visually engaging articles on Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World. Part 1 is here, and part 2 is here. My bet is, you’ve never seen such an array of writing samples from so many historical language roots and from virtually every corner of the world.

Calligraphy from illuminated Armenian Gospel manuscript

(Bonus points if you noticed which typeface I used in the numbers in my thumbnail illustration at the top.)

I’ve owned an HP psc 2410 photosmart all-in-one “printer-fax-scanner-copier” for around 6 or 7 years—long enough to have the last major Mac OS update blow away my ability to scan. No, wait—make that: long enough that HP decided not to update their driver for this release. Maybe they were thinking “Hey, it’s about time these people bought a new printer!” or maybe “What. Ever. There really aren’t that many Mac users out there, anyway.” At least, that’s how it felt since I upgraded to Snow Leopard late last fall. How frustrating! I searched the boards to see if/how other folks have solved the problem. I downloaded software designed to work with any scanner. I even hauled out my old Agfa ScanPro and tried to find the power cable. No luck. If I had to scan something, I had to bring it in to the MAC to do it.

And the funny thing was, I sort of couldn’t get over it. Every time I drove past the HP campus here in Corvallis, I’d think, “I won’t be buying my next printer from that company.”

So, I was pretty surprised earlier this month to find that HP just released an updated driver for my all-in-one. Now, instead of feeling like a customer who doesn’t matter once the check has been cashed, I feel great! I get my seamless user experience back, and I’m not mad at HP anymore. In fact, the opposite. It feels a little like the Carly is wearing off and the old HP is showing through: the company that has always known that every customer matters. But in the end, I don’t really care why they decided to update the driver. I’m a customer! I don’t need to know why. I just need my all-in-one to work the way they told me it would in the first place.

Thanks, HP! Good work.

As you move through your day negotiating with clients, paying bills, or planning next week’s goals, take a moment to (figuratively) look up at the sky. What kinds of forces can you see headed your way (economic, social, personal) that can provide you with information to help make your later Now better?

Now let’s look at incentives for knowledge workers. The research shows they won’t produce more work simply because you’ve offered a bonus for exceeding quota. And you can’t underpay people: that’s a de-motivator. You have to pay them fairly. After that, you can bring other, much more effective motivational tools into play.

This RSA Animate adaptation of a Dan Pink talk illustrates the studies and the results in a very entertaining way. Think “chalk-talk” video, but without the snoring.

If you need to motivate someone in your life, whether it’s your workers, your children*, or your customers, you’ll be interested in these findings.

What are some non-traditional methods you’ve found useful in motivating people?

* Yes, I do consider children knowledge workers. They are working on accumulating knowledge every day in every way.