Has beauty touched your world today?

I’ve been getting to grips with Vimeo for an upcoming project on the Opinioniste blog (mmm… more to follow soon) and came across this gorgeous video. We’ve all seen countless recipe books and cooking shows which promise to show you how to cook something beautiful. Here is something beautiful which also shows you how to cook: how I wish cooking shows were more like this!

Whilst it’s perhaps missing a few key details, I think it prompts us to ask the question ‘how can we can communicate with our consumers in a way that is beautiful, as well as practical.’

The video is from a husband and wife creative team at ‘Tiger in a Jar‘: worth a visit.

So who have you seen creating something beautiful?

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Getting Tossed with Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver

Have you ever had that experience when you remembered something so basic that you were surprised that you had ever forgotten it in the first place?

My epiphany this week was courtesy of Jamie Oliver, and his “30 Minute Meals” show. The way he builds a salad is interesting – make the dressing in the bowl, pile the salad leaves etc on top and then toss the whole lot with your hands just before serving.

Which made me realise that I had somehow forgotten the difference that tossing a salad with the dressing makes. I have been pouring the dressing on top, and then forcing myself to consume the “good for me” salad – after watching Jamie I tried his technique myself and the results were revolutionary: what was my boring old salad was suddenly full-flavoured and tasty and just delicious. Getting your hands in is a bit mucky (and yes you need to wash them first!) but it does the best job.

Loving this on a couple of levels: firstly, my salad tastes great, so bring on the healthy eating. On a broader level, it’s inspiring to find someone standing out in the super saturated cooking show/cookbook world by reminding consumers of the basics, but also doing it in a different, practical way.

So how does it apply to the brands and businesses we work on? It’s worth examining what we assume our consumers already know, as sometimes revisiting the basics and communicating them can be more powerful than a newfangled innovation.

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