VISION & TRADITION
Though it is quite common - if not absolutely appropriate at times - to create wild content to appeal to new genres, it is of paramount importantance not to allow the allure of avant garde methods to blind us from creating advertisements and video with clear stopping power. Legibility of an advertising message should never take a back seat to appearance (unless appearance is integral of the message), and a videographer/filmographer and editor should never jeopardize the legibility of their story in favor of aggressive camera and cutting techniques (perhaps explained no better than in Matthias Stork's article Chaos Cinema).
One may suggest that the New Media movement renders these traditional methods moot; yet, it is perfectly capable to achieve a lasting effect on an audience without resorting to shock value when it isn't absolutely necessary. Shock for the sake of it is not creative, nor should it be classified as "thinking outside the box" - for doing so is simply a cheap scapegoat for having failed to do just that. Likewise, the term "new media" does not automatically dictate "new methodology."
It is with this outlook that I balance my graphic designs with a judicious amount of traditional sensibility - rather than follow fleeting trends of the moment. After all, the mere definition of "trend" negates uniqueness to all but the trendsetter. Hence, it is with this clear slate that I brainstorm my designs to develop new stylistic appearances for the era to come - rather than sink into the repetitiveness of present stylistic norms of the given moment.
-Kurt Kaminer