Wesley works in the Promotions and Community Relations department at CTV Vancouver Island. He is formally trained in professional photography and is currently completing a Bachelors in Business Administration with focus on marketing communications and public relations. He is also a proud member of the Canadian Public Relations Society and Victoria Magic Circle. He enjoys biking, card magic, and sushi.
Liam Sarsfield of MetaLab on Building Tumblr Themes
The idyllic seaside city of Victoria, British Columbia, is home to MetaLab, an interface design agency thatâs discovered a profitable business in custom-built and Ă la carte Tumblr themes. So profitable, in fact, that themes are the main work product of a spinoff company called Pixel Union. Creative director Liam Sarsfield has strong opinions on what makes design beautiful â and how best to make it.
When was MetaLab formed, and by whom?
MetaLab was founded in 2006 by our commander-in-chief, Andrew Wilkinson. He had gone off to journalism school thinking that he wanted to change the world; he quickly realized that that wasnât the way that he wanted to do it. He took up residence in his parentâs basement, and thatâs how it started.
Every time I shop at my local grocery store, I am faced with a choice. I can buy my groceries from a human being or from a machine. I always, without exception, choose the machine
Iâve always found it surprising that Instagram was the preferred photo sharing application over the many dozens, or even hundreds, of iOS photo apps. Maybe itâs because the app is free or maybe itâs because they did social right. Iâm sure both those things were major contributors to their success, but I want to look at why 40 million users want to use the same 17 filters. Â
Well, itâs because it hard to fudge your photo with only 17 predetermined paths to success. By offering a limited selection of filters, everyone has the same ability to make an interesting picture. They give everyone the same limitations; and when all is said and done, no matter what youâve taken a picture of, it looks pretty damn good when Instagram is done with it.
If youâre not photo savvy and you donât want all the options of higher end application, then those 17 filters are home to you. You produce good work with those filters and itâs more fun to shoot and share than it is to mug around with sliders and feel frustrated when you donât get the look youâre going for.
It is this type of limitation that encourages the development of art. Orson Welles once said that âthe enemy of art is the absence of limitationsâ and it absolutely holds true when you look at Instagram and other popular artsy apps, like the newly launched drawing app for the ipad, âPaperâ.
The drawing app features similar limitations to Instagramâs filter set. Unlike many drawing applications, it only allows you to choose from a total of nine colours. Thereâs no support for multiple layers and has a limited selection of five brush options. But, within those limitations is the key to itâs success. Â
Iâm not great at drawing, but Paper takes my doodles to a whole new level. Their super intuitive pen takes my lines and turns them into smooth and graceful strokes. Their limited color selection takes the worry out of choosing hues because everything matches. Itâs encouraged me to doodle more, just as Instragram has undoubtedly encouraged people to take more photographs.
The minimal effort it takes to create something good, something share worthy, is why Instagram has grown substantially faster than other photo-sharing services (Flickr got to 100 000 000 photos in two years; Instagram, in 8 months). Itâs filters give you the confidence to post and to continue posting. There is a lot to be said about Instgramâs triumph when it comes to creating a massive community with itâs trendy filters, but at what cost?
Do the filters encourage better photography? I think, not. If anything, filters, intuitive pens, and preselected colours are a crutch, and they encourage lazy art. While these limitations may create a sudden eruption of artists willing to share their work, ultimately it promotes mediocrity. It takes a crappy phone picture and turns it into vintage photograph, a photograph that takes the guise of a credible picture because itâs old looking. When we look back at our Instagram years from now, we will see a dated style documenting a happily forgotten fad.
At the turn of century, web logs had emerged online and captured the attention of the Internet community. These online personal journals would soon be used as mainstream tools for outreach and opinion forming. In the mid 2000s, web logs, or blogs, manifested themselves in a different medium, as videos. These early video blogs marked the beginning of a revolution known as Web Television.
 Revision3, created in April of 2005, was one of the first Internet television networks. Today the network is the leading creator, producer, and distributor of special interest content. Revision3 hosts dozens weekly scheduled shows, with new content released nearly every month. Since 2005, the network has expanded to host shows on gaming, politics, entertainment, cooking, and more.
 Husak has been in the public relations field for over 15 years. In the mid 90âs she got her start in Hollywood working at record labels. Her early career focused mainly on the production and development of brands. When freelance opportunities arose in the dot com and Internet space she left the labels and began her career in PR. Before taking the position at Revision3, Husak had worked in the public relations department of companies like ebay, Pandora (the streaming music recommendation engine), and Digg (a social news website). When asked, she described her move to the PR field as âwithout much planning or forethoughtâ. She, like others in Silicon Valley, was in the right place at the right time.
 Skills & Education
 Michele describes her education as having been very useful in the field of PR. âIâve had to represent and pitch to many different types of personalities. Itâs a pretty useful area of study for a lot of careers, actually.â Her area of study was Psychology. She graduated with a bachelors from The State University of New York at Albany in 1990, and moved to west coast shortly after to find work at the Creative Artists Agency as an assistant in the literary TV dept. At the time of her graduation she did not know that she would end up working in PR, but the strong communication skills instilled in her from Albany gave her the edge when considering a career in PR years later.
 The skills Husak considers most important when pursuing a career in PR are communication skills. Strong foundations in these skills, both verbal and written, are very important. âBeing able to create a compelling story or news angle in a clear and digestible way to appeal to a reporter, and by extension, a target audience, is keyâ. The ability to write and speak persuasively will get you ahead in this profession. Skills also important to a person just starting out in this career would include: the ability to be patient and the ability to be self-motivated. Husak mentions that sometimes getting a story that reporters and other media will cling to is not as easy as it sounds. Finding an angle that appeals to a journalist could take months, so you have to motivate yourself to move forward and understand that sometimes things donât happen instantly.
 Job Description
 At Revision3, Husakâs role is to manage the public perception of the company to ensure brand consistency and positive media perception. She is responsible for creating news announcements, pitching to reporters, and securing speaking opportunities for their executive team at industry conferences.
 Her PR team is small, essentially just her and an intern that manages the companyâs social media efforts. She is unable to describe a typically workweek, but her weeks are dictated mostly by the coming and going of events. Managing media for a new show launch could tie up a week or two. Organizing and attending conferences also takes up a fair amount of time for her. She also handles correspondence with new or potential business partners, but a main stay of her day to day work schedule has always included the answering and sending of emails and the reading of news and current events.
 Revision3, being a large and growing network in the Internet television world, is responsible for managing a great number of shows. Husak describes managing all the brands on the network as a bit of a triage on a weekly basis. âItâs not possible to promote all the shows, every day, so we look at what the content is, show by show, to see if thereâs something that could benefit from extra promotion.â
 PR, in Revision3, is a part of the business development and marketing departments. In this small team, Husak works closely with the production and programming teams as well as with their CEO to maintain a constant communication with the business. Husak uses this solid communication throughout the company to pinpoint and develop press opportunities for the company and itâs many brands.
 At the end of the day, she finds PR to be a very rewarding job. She was worked on many projects and campaigns and says, âitâs always great to create a story angle for a particular reporter or publication and have that match come together with a great story as a result. Itâs nice to see a message that you put forth, or a quote that you wrote, come through clearly in an article.â That, she describes, is the great feeling she strives for at the end of a hard dayâs work.
 Thoughts on Public Relations
 Public Relations is one of fastest growing careers in marketing. Michele has noticed many changes in the recent years. The biggest change, she states, is the advent of social media. Social media has completely changed the landscape for PR. She says, âItâs been amazing to watch brands become more transparent (whether by choice or by necessity) as the emphasis has become customer-centric and open.â The expectations of practitioners have changed the way PR communicates with their viewers. âToday we communicate constantly with our viewer and we highly value that two-way relationshipâ. Husak sees these changes as âabsolutely positiveâ. The two-way dialogue opens a whole new door for audience participation. It gives viewers the chance to endorse ideas and make suggestions to make the company work better for them.
 Technology continues to change the way companies communicate with their publics. Michele sees the moving away from traditional press and press conferences as a step in the right direction. In the past, she feels, âcompanies controlled their information too tightlyâ. Revision3 uses their blog as a news dissemination platform. âIt allows us to speak in an authentic voice and to engage our viewers in discussionâ.
 To keep current, Husak reads a lot of industry articles and she uses social media, like twitter, to follow tons of influential reports and PR professionals. She puts great value on keeping up to date and staying credible as a professional. Often, she will attend industry conferences that will benefit her day-to-day work.
 Starting in PR Today
 For a student hoping to start a career in public relations, Husakâs best advice is to âintern, intern, intern!â âThe best way to get in the door and learn in the industry is to intern while youâre still in schoolâ. She believes that it is absolutely the best way to figure out early on what practice area suits you the best. âInterning provides you with relevant experience for entry level positionsâ.
 Revision3 selects entry-level PR candidates based mostly on personality and enthusiasm. A strong interest in marketing communications and the Internet video industry are key to securing a position. Michele says that, âa lot of it is a gut feeling when itâs an entry-level candidate who doesnât have a ton of experience. So, if you find the right person, you can pretty much teach them what they need to know.
When asked if she had any advice for someone starting in the field she said, âbuckle up and keep your phone on you at all timesâ. Husak fell into PR and itâs been an interesting ride for her. Every week offers new surprises and challenges. It is difficult to be prepared for all of it, but recommends being a vacuum for information. âInterview lots and lots of professionals and find out as much as you can about the field.â
 Gathering and understanding relevant information seems to be the key to success in PR. Husak relies mostly on personal networks. She stresses the importance of a solid network that you can reach out to, as opposed to a professional organization. She recommends starting by asking everyone you know in the industry for contacts. Her personal network is filled with incredible people she has gotten to work with. This network of people supports her by exchanging ideas, sharing contacts, and offering support.
 Conclusion
 Before coming into this interview, I was really in the dark about what a PR practitioner actually does in a regular day. I have to say, Iâm still kind of in the dark. The goals in PR just seem⊠intentionally vague, but Michele was kind enough to at least try and fill in some of the blanks. Her examples, though circumstantial, shed a little light how what a regular day would be like.
 What I found most interesting about interviewing people in the communications industry is their career path. Thereâs just something about origin stories that is just captivating. Maybe thatâs why they can reboot the same superhero origin story every few years and still make a profit. Anyway, it was fascinating to see Micheleâs educational background, and her previous positions before landing this one.
 As a business student aspiring for a career in marketing and public relations, itâs kind of a downer to know that your business skills seemingly count for a lot less than your communications skills. However it makes sense when you look at the shift toward a more transparent business model; effective communication skills would be high in the priority of necessary skills for socially integrated company, especially in the field of PR.
 Also, it relieves me know that Revision3 selects their entry-level candidates based mostly on personality. Itâs great to know that a company will take a chance on you even if you havenât got a ton of experience.
 So, there we have it.
 Iâd like to thank Michele for taking the time out of her busy schedule for this interview. Revision3 continues to be one of my favourite online television networks and if you havenât checked it out, please do. Theyâve got something for every taste.
"On April 4, Russian antivirus vendor Dr. Web published strong evidence that more than 500,000 Macs have been infected by the latest variant of the Flashback trojan. As Mikko Hypponen, Chief Researcher at F-Secure pointed out via Twitter, if there are roughly 45 million Macs out there, Flashback would now have infected more than 1 percent of them, making Flashback roughly as common for Mac as Conficker was for Windows. Flashback appears to be the most widespread Mac malware weâve seen since the days when viruses were spread on infected floppy disks; it could be the single most significant malware infection to ever hit the Mac community."
Letâs pretend Google could actually build and ship something exactly like what they show in their concept video. Think about the data Google is collecting about the videoâs protagonist.
- John Gruber on Google's Project Glass
And all of a sudden, the world becomes dickish â as in Philip K.
 - Wired's Steven Levy on Googles Project Glass
The augmented reality promotional video documents the model day of a typical Google Glass user as he navigates to a book store, communicates with friends, and shares pictures and videos all without the use of a hand held device.Â
A video assignment intended to outline management principles, sustainability, and ethical issues. Created for Al Morrison's BUS150 Digital Story Project.Â
A short commercial created as Advertising for the Victoria Tea Festival's 2013 Marketing Communications plan. The video is intended to promote the VTF blog, which explores the wide variety of teas available at the festival.Â
Music Credit:
Gramatik - Loungin'
origamiaround
areudirty
gummygunk
stormborns
dededos
