Architects Archives - Steve Sammartino

Company Mantra – It’s in the game!

Posted on November 13, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

While watching a documentary on the evolution of video games I heard the coolest company mantra ever.

It was from EA sports, the gaming company which focused on creating games which closely represented the real thing. More important for startups was how they got there. One of the key developers came up with the internal motto “if it’s in the game, it’s in the game”. This later evolved to be the brand tagline “It’s in the game!”

EA went the extremes to put everything ‘in the game’. Some of these extremes include:

Getting the actual TV commentators to do voice overs on the games
Licensing teams, sporting organizations brands & players
Getting the actual athletes in the studio to get each players exact movements

The result being amazingly realistic games. Amazing games which wouldn’t have been possible without the mantra – a mantra which simply did not accept compromise.

Mantra is only powerful if we embrace it in every thing we do. EA sports did and went on to be a $4 billion US company with large profit margins.

What is your startup mantra?

steve – founder rentoid.com

The difference between ‘Innovation & Different’

Posted on February 28, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

While watching entrepreneurs pitch their business earlier this week at the Pitch Club in Melbourne Australia, and colleague and I were disappointed at what some people believe to be innovation.

Shannon from Shannon says and I agreed that what many people call innovation is simply – different.

Here’s a clear delineation of the two which is a startup blog mashup of multiple dictionary definitions.

Different: unlike in form, quality, amount, or nature. Distinct or separate. Unusual or differing from others.

Innovation: a creation, new device or process. The result of study and or experimentation which improves the desired outcome / usage of said device, process or creation.

Sometimes we only need to understand the true meaning of our words to determine if we are ‘on track’.

This ain’t no disco

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

This is where we work…

As a follow up to my office space blog entry here’s a web site that can do a far better job of displaying cool offices than I can. aintnodisco.com

Click to check it out.

The Pitch

Posted on December 3, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

A colleague has left the safe confines of his large conservative leading architecture firm to start up his own – K2LDC. So now his new job role isn’t CEO, rather ‘salesman’.

So how does an architecture differentiate themselves with their pitch? here’s a tip – it’s not through anything to do with power point slides or boring details. Especially as it concerns visual services such as architecture. It’s about creating theatre, sparking imagination and getting the client into your mind.

So K2DLC did this: After a brief discussion at the pitch they left the client with a deck of cards (samples below) with their pictures and thoughts on how to approach the design.

Result: The client considered what the firm was trying to achieve. They played with the cards. They put them on their fridge. They put them in their order of favorite. They had an in depth discussion. They took themselves on a visual journey. They loved it.

K2DLC won the pitch.