I finally watched Fantastic Mr. Fox. I love Wes Anderson like any other liberal arts kid from Texas, but I missed this soft epic in theaters. The delightful George Clooney needs no elaboration.

Everything is executed perfectly. Anderson has a plan, but edits himself. The film is dreamy and imaginative without being forced. It is relatable, engaging, and satisfying.

Since watching the film, I’ve been focusing on work. Some of that work includes reading and attending events about content strategy.

The most popular question this week was, “How does a content strategist fit on a Web team?”

People are really asking:

• “Why do we need a content strategist?”
• “How am I supposed to do my job with another person involved?”

When you get a bunch of different animals in a room, there will be confusion and conflict. But, with a mission and flexibility, great things can happen.

Wes Anderson gets this, and is optimistic. When Mr. Fox looks at his misfit gang of colleagues and friends, he says he sees them in their roles. He adds:

I also see a room full of wild animals. Wild animals with true natures and pure talents.

Wild animals with scientific sounding Latin names… that mean something about our DNA.

Wild animals, each with his or her own strengths and weaknesses due to his or her species.

Anyway, I think it may very well be all the beautiful differences among us that just might give us the tiniest glimmer of a chance…

It’s like content strategy, animal-style. Well, more like how an optimistic content strategist envisions Web teams working. We do it here at Mule. (I’ll talk more about our process in a later post.)

Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses; our differences make it possible for us to collaborate, disagree, contribute, create, and do good work for our clients.

We’re all designers; we’re all different. But there’s something kind of fantastic about that, isn’t there?

As Mr. Fox says, “It’s just a thought.”

Tweet | Written by Nicole Jones on July 2, 2010 |