Good evening. My name is Bram Pitoyo.

You probably wonder why I chose to start this site with a paragraph. What do this guy have in mind? You may think, and then could I please just get to the content of the site right away, thank you?

As you can see from reading this sentence, I have subtly refused your request. But bear with me, now, if you will. How should an Account Planner, Creative Researcher, Brand Strategist, Self-Professed Geek & Biker With A Penchant For Gourmet Cooking start his or her site?

Well, for starters, I could state my name (which I already did) & follow with a sort of introductory sentence about how you have come to the right place, praise be to God and that I am absolutely certain that I will have the solution for every problem that you are having right now, even though I have only met you once at a tech startup convention where we talked about Google Android and the significance of Obama’s speech on race.

I could even choose to compare each step of the Account Planning process to how this webpage is structured, to the point that this site magically transforms into a metaphor of the eternal battle between the advertising industry & human nature.

I could do that.

But I chose instead to humor you with a story. Because story has always been a universal mean by which people dissipate information. And thus every brand or product that doesn’t tell a compelling story is practically destined to die. But anyways, let’s not let truisms get in our way. I chose to tell a story because I like it. And people around me happen to like it too. And when stories are shared & passed on, the magic of fresh ideas usually spark. And I love the thrill of it.

I also thought that starting a site with options upon options of where to go, what to see & how to contact is no way to start a lasting relationship. But on with the story:

About a year ago, I was asked by Lynette Xanders, my mentor at Wild Alchemy, to help a lady from Texas who wanted to learn to be an Account Planner. Having no previous experience of helping people to be one, I naturally asked Lynette for advice. Advice as in what’s the best way to help her and is there some sort of a best practice guide to do this? Because, frankly, I have no clue.

Her answer was this: every people alive should have a piece of writing that defines them. Back then, this was called a ‘manifesto,’ and I could’ve sworn that it was spreading like I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER, because almost every agencies that I went to in Portland spoke of manifesto-this & manifesto-that. Anyway, she then said that I should compose this document, or if not, create one ASAP because it’s going to ease the process of self-discovery. You know how writing out your goal on paper can increase your likelihood of actually achieving it? The manifesto is kind of like that, except that it also deals with the present. And after the whole thing had been written out, she said, you should give it to her as a starting point for writing her own manifesto. Then we’ll go from there.

Let me skip to the end of the story, because I think that your loving wife or husband and three-month or six-year old are probably both waiting for your affection right now. Or your girl or boyfriend waiting for the dinner that you’re supposed to cook or order out. Or that your lunch break is over in four minutes and you haven’t had the chance to grab anything to eat because of this.

The end of the story is that the lady from Texas did learn a lot, though she didn’t end up becoming an Account Planner. But what’s fascinating is that I learnt so much not only about myself, but also the business of Account Planning and the art of telling an awesome story by doing research for the manifesto.

I promise to tell you more about the process (and also refund your lunch money) if you drop me a line at bram@brampitoyo.com, or if we happen to ever meet at some other tech startup convention—which, I can assure you, will be very very soon since there are a practically endless number of tech startups in Portland. Until then, I’ll be constantly learning stuff and absorbing knowledge like crazy, because, first of all, hell, what do I know? And, second of all, that’s the only way I can help you tell more awesome stories for yourself, your company or your brand.

For now, this is what I learned so far. This is my conviction:

It’s about wisdom and using insights meaningfully. Charting the stars and cutting through the data to find a shining stella. It’s about war against the temptation to do it easier for easy’s sake. About spiritually fulfilling works that makes the heart pound. It’s about the magic in the sauce. The excellence in the effort. Doing it with more empathy and less assembly code. It’s about more elegant solutions. And successes that are measured by how much I can scare myself every hour, and how much “A-ha’s” I get from it.

It’s about blooming brands that deliver killer choruses with an equally beautiful opus.

Good night.

O N  M A S H U P S
&
A L C H E M I S T S
On Alchemists
I believe that that sparks, insights and idea cannot be generated in the separate spheres of any field of knowledge. They can only happen in the overlap between those fields of knowledge.

This calls for a type of people that I would call ‘Alchemists.’ Alchemists are people who, by their diversity of knowledge, are able to build better things.

For example, in the field of User Experience, Alchemists are those who knew not only Ethnography, Usability, Design and Programming, but also Baseball, Viniculture, the art of writing great Emails, and all sorts of human endeavors—that are able to engineer products with not only sound logic (Fitts’ Law et al.) and beautiful architecture (code), but also social instinctiveness (graceful gestures.)

On Mashups
Most people think that geeks, designers, and generally all the citizens of the Creative class are just interested in, well, geekery, design, and other creative things. This notion is partly true. Most geeks are in tune with their gadgetry, and most designer worships [insert a mid-century designer / architect / typographer here.]

But to truly succeed, we need to diversify. We must immerse themselves in things that other ‘normal people’ do. It helps when these ‘things’ are closely interrelated—my examples above are Ethnography, Usability, Design and Programming—but it needn’t always be that way; because in diversification, almost anything and everything helps to add to your success.

The point is, if we are to succeed, we need to:

• Understand the intimate connections between closely related fields of knowledge, and
• Be men and women of culture, who not only dabble in the things that are related to our fields, but all sorts of human endeavors.

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