From Alan Steele, VP, Director of Studio Services, Palio

A review of: Going Visual - Using Images to Enhance Productivity, Decision Making and Profits, by Alexis Gerard and Bob Goldstein

This book, which is in Palio’s creative resources library, proposes that images are the best new tool to significantly improve business. Using the analogy of a Bach concert in 1500, the authors argue that, although we have a surviving music score, information about audience reaction, the look and feel of the concert space, the sound of the instruments, and the interaction between orchestra members is lost. The limitations of the written word as a descriptive tool are clear.

Humans, the authors point out, process the world visually. We have significantly more nerve fiber connections between our brain and optic nerve than between our brain and our other senses. However, we need a technology to capture and share images. There are three variables to image capture/sharing: skill level, time requirements, and audience reach. Through most of human history, up until still photography, skill level and time requirements were very high and audience reach was very low. Think of a highly skilled Renaissance oil painter and his courtly audience. With film photography, then digital photography and digital video, skill level and time requirements are low and audience reach is high. Think of you with a point-and-shoot digital camera and a quick download to your Facebook site.

The authors cite five case studies where images are incorporated into business process. A facilities management firm uses images to show where property needs repair. A self-employed sales rep takes photos of products from her 150 manufacturers and shares them with clients instead of lugging around the physical products. An SVP of merchandising for a chain of retail stores travels globally, photographing unique products. Designers also send her digital photos of concept renderings. An outdoor advertising company tags images with information making them “smart.” For example, the metadata attached to a billboard in Los Angeles includes a specific location, the advertiser, expiration date of the contract, etc. The company can “pre visualize” a property by superimposing a billboard on a proposed site. A project manager for an international entertainment company uses videoconferencing so globally dispersed team members can be together. There is less travel, tighter contact, and quicker business decisions.

There are five future directions for images in the business environment – 1) Imaging ecosystem: reducing the barriers to seamless image communication, ensuring that images flow freely across devices, software, and networks, 2) Visual mobility: the mobile phone is just the beginning, “real-time business” captures and communicates information instantly regardless of where the sender and receiver are located, 3) Automatic imaging: CCTV, web cams, reconnaissance satellites are examples of continuous, unattended, network-connected imaging devices, 4) Vivid imaging: a “long” picture of 1 to 10 seconds enables the viewer to feel part of an environment (a 360° view of a home is an example), and 5) Personalized authoring: video editing software that creates different videos for different audiences from the same content.