Moving images

You know how it is when things just come together; something on the radio makes you sit up and take notice, a piece of film captures your imagination (and heart), a book that you’ve had on pre-order lands on your desk and to top it all you’re blown away by what clients have taken from an exercise (which you know went well, but had no idea what it could lead to). An eclectic mix at first glance, but think ‘moving images’ – with a little playfulness around the literal and emotional connotations.

 

A marathon not a sprint

The images conjured up listening to Kathrine Switzer talk about breaking ground as the first female marathon runner were in every sense moving. 
Listen, here

With all the hype around Mo and his chances of winning (or not as it turned out) in the recent London marathon how extraordinary that, but for the tenacity and bravery of Kathrine and others like her, the event might well have been an all-male affair. We genuinely find it astonishing to think that as late as 1967 organisers truly considered women to only be capable of running a mile and half and they believed this with such vehemence that Kathrine was actually attacked as she ran and they tried to stop her. Although there are days when a mile and half is actually just about my limit – as Kathrine so beautifully put it, for her and other women running is about ‘feeling empowered, feeling liberated, feeling free’. Something we can really relate to at Maier – although just to be clear we’re committed to ‘setting all leaders free’, not just the female ones.

 

If you go down to the woods

We’ve known for a long time just how talented the team at Spindle Productions are, but even we, dedicated fans that we are, fell in love with their work all over again when we saw their latest cinematic triumph, The Woodsman www.spindleproductions.co.uk

A beguiling story and beautifully shot it is the very epitome of ‘poetry in motion’. I think we sometimes accept without question the frenetic, stop-start nature of our lives as leaders – either by our own design or at the hands of others. Perhaps we should be aiming instead for more deliberate fluidity and movement in leadership rather than the knee-jerk reactions we’re all too familiar with. I’m sure this wasn’t part of the original film brief, but it’s one of the things we took from it – amazing where your thinking can take you when left to roam unhindered.

 

101 reasons to be impressed

When we first opened the package containing the new book ‘Why Fashion Matters’ written by client and friend Frances Corner, Head of London College of Fashion – have to be honest – we all said ‘What NO pictures!’ A book on fashion with no glossy pages revelling in the beauty, froth and frippery of the industry – really? But you know, it’s the cleverest of approaches because much of this book is about the social conscience we need so much more of in fashion. It’s about self- belief and emotionality expressed through our clothes and accessories coupled with the skills and wit it takes to create them. It’s referencing the hard commercial edge of fashion but also the fantastic opportunities presented by what is of course a multibillion pound industry. All this in a small book where the beautiful use of text forms patterns in its own right relying solely on a simple palette of red and black on white. It takes the eyes and mind on an intriguing and absorbing journey. In this case, pictures would only distract and in a strange way spoil its beauty – well that’s what we in the Maier crew reckon so there!

http://francescorner.com/my-book-why-fashion-matters

 

A thousand words

We work with clients all the time on how they share the big messages across their organisations and make those all important emotional connections. More often than not we try to tap into visual imagery to enhance the messages, pictures can sometimes be so immediate and stimulating plus the act of creating your own bit of art to tell a story can be mighty powerful. A favourite exercise of ours; ‘heart, body and soul’ reached new heights recently where the client not only transformed their thinking into the most wonderfully vibrant images but managed to capture a sense of fantastic movement. The swimmer driving through the waves with powerful strokes, taking the company with them felt like a pretty unique representation of values and leadership principles. Simple, clear, inspired – wow! We loved it.

Cut-out inspiration

Watch out for the wonderful Matisse exhibition at Tate Modern and his Cut-Outs, the master of movement through simple shapes and vivid colour, fabulous.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/henri-matisse-cut-outs