Liesl Barrell

My favourite line from a novel breaks plenty of rules:

The spaceship hung in the air in exactly the same way that bricks don’t.

Douglas Adams

It shows the power of writing to defy and shape reality, how the simplest concepts can change the way we perceive our world, and that the intangible can be made tangible (with a little help).

Most importantly, it reminds me that anything can happen with the right idea. If there are no words to describe it, I have the moxie* to make one or two up. Because I live for ideas, for media (old and new), and for making things happen.

What I’ve learned across my digital, publicity, writing and theatre experience is that good ideas are lovely, but it’s the right ideas that need to drive any kind of development. The best digital campaigns give users a rush as they feel the rules bend or break while they click/read/watch/listen/engage online… That’s what gets me up in the mornings and keeps me up at night, supervising accounts and projects at Twist Image, one of Canada’s top agencies and my current natural habitat.

Each wildly viral meme or innovative interactive snippet our foraging magpie culture throws into the ring of our collective unconscious is FTW. I love watching how cost-effective digital call-response metrics are changing us, our cultures and our future.

I get excited with every step towards the Semantic Web, because meaning means a lot to me. I am in on the fight against IE 6 or phrases like “click here” and “skip intro” (internautes deserve better!) With every fibre of my being, I believe in 37signals’ notion that great interfaces are written.

If these things matter to you, too, then we`ll get along like a house (or, at the very least, a roof) on fire.

Liesl Barrell

Digital Marketer | Writer & Editor | Facebook Statustician