“where in the world is peace?” … from wintry pines to westminster abbey

Alright, not exactly at Westminster Abbey, but close enough! And I’m pretty sure this bag did make the trek to the abbey, along with London’s other great sites.

Then as if to remind us that March it may be, but winter isn’t over quite yet ~ a lovely snow-tipped vision of peace among earth’s leaves and branches.

Thank you both for spreading our peace message in everyday ways! Gratitude…!

(ps:  you can see all “where in the world is peace?” images compiled on our special “where in the world is peace?” page. Totes, mugs and things are available here. Send your own pictures to 52weeksofpeace@gmail.com and we’ll also post them on our FaceBook page. Let’s see where peace goes!)

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Six Businesses, Six Business Cards

Using the same businesses from “Six Businesses, Six Logos” (with one substitution), here’s how their identities start to play themselves out in a practical format.

Although limited by fitting the amount of information any given client feels is necessary into a relatively small space, you can have a lot of fun with business cards, especially if you’ve designed a logo that allows you to pull from various elements. The key here is to not only support the brand identity through consistent logo use, but to expand upon it by appropriately enhancing the look and the feel. The canvas is small, but the impact doesn’t have to be.

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Six Businesses, Six Logos

Someone recently asked me, “How do you create a logo? Where do you start?”

I didn’t have a ready answer, except that it just sort of happens ~ ideas, concepts, visuals come to mind, which then evolve, and then get tweaked into a finished product. And while this is the truth of it, I’m sure it was highly useless to the person asking the question, especially the part where it “just sort of happens”.

If I were to try again, I’d say that the “just happening” probably comes from many years of what I’ll call research. It’s being in a business where you’re constantly aware of branding, you’re using different fonts and font combinations on a daily basis, working with shapes and colors and sizes and revolving trends. So that when you sit down to “create”, there’s all this history at your disposal. A muscle that’s been exercised regularly. You know where you can bend and stretch the limits, and you know ~ both intuitively and figuratively ~ what won’t work.

With that in mind, I have 4 rules I’ve always followed when creating a logo:

1.) Clear the head.

2.) Listen.

3.) Find emotional touchpoints and discern the personality of the business.

4.) Distill to its simplest form.

Of course within the process there’s the wonderfully muddy area where creativity swirls. Marrying concepts and tastes, the play of fonts, and the interweaving of symbols and shapes to give a visual voice to the intent of the logo: which is to be distinctive, memorable and clean, ready to leave a solid, ever-present, impression.

Here are 6 recent logos from 6 different businesses: A Non-Profit Foundation for Special Forces families, Landscaping, Real Estate Staging, E-Learning, Speech & Presentation Coaching, and Osteopathy. (I might mention that most of these presented the additional challenge of being particularly long names, which can be trickier when it comes to applying them… more on that next.)

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52 Weeks of Peace (squared) / #61

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.”  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Week #61 / 52 Weeks of Peace (squared) / © Patricia Saxton

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52 Weeks of Peace (squared) / #60

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Week #60 / 52 Weeks of Peace (squared) / © Patricia Saxton

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“where in the world is peace?” … madagascar!

I suppose the only thing that could possibly have made this one even more exciting would have been if the movie characters had joined in!  (Not to mention a real zebra…) Thank you for this terrific image, and spreading the “52 Weeks of Peace” message farther and wider.

Peace mug overlooking city of Antananarivo, Madagascar


(ps:  you can see all “where in the world is peace?” images compiled on our special “where in the world is peace?” page. Totes, mugs and things are available here. Send your own pictures to 52weeksofpeace@gmail.com and we’ll also post them on our FaceBook page. Let’s see where peace goes!)

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Whitney Houston ~ Rest in Peace

All the world mourns Whitney Houston today. But I don’t think we mourn the loss of a “big star”. I think we mourn the loss of something that was great and genuine in our midst.

Part of the tragedy of Whitney Houston’s early death is that we could have easily imagined it working out so much differently. We could imagine her growing older, becoming a grandmother, and a laughing, wise and dignified grande dame to a next generation of talented singers and actresses with dreams as bright as Whitney was in life.

We’re in shock, not just because she was so young, but because it just seems all wrong somehow. As if she took a left turn and got utterly lost, unable to find her way back. And now she’s gone back to the very beginning, by reaching the very end, too soon for the rest of us to fathom.

I’m not so sure it’s anything other than that, although we could philosophize all day that her passing reflects the downside of the spotlight, a fall from grace, the perils of super-stardom… because, there is no doubt, Whitney was a superstar.

She was a bigger-than-life star simply because her gifts were powerful and so completely pure. No bells and whistles, no shock-value accessories, nothing but a voice that was heaven-sent and an ability to make each tone matter, each word touch ground or circle the sun, and the physical poise and beauty to carry it off.  It is the rarest of individuals who reach that level of fame and adoration with no embellishment needed. She was not just another starlet ~ she was a class act, with talent as real as it comes.

I sometimes think that certain God-given gifts are born into souls too tender for this world. That very sensitivity allows them to share their gifts purely ~ as surely Whitney Houston did ~ but their humanity, their frailty, takes a beating. A wrong turn too many and in the end, there is mourning.

Rest in Peace, Whitney Houston. The world was a better place for your having been here.

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Super Bowl Ads / Part II: The Forgettable and The Unforgettable

If you’ve read my last post, I stand corrected, thanks to my friend Mary.

There was one more really good, memorable ad besides the Chrysler/Clint Eastwood piece. (I hadn’t seen this one ~ must have been firing up the hot fudge sauce when it aired…) This one’s just a happy hoot! ~ and every bit as good for wit and creativity as the Chrysler ad was for class and message.

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Super Bowl Ads: The Forgettable and The Unforgettable

“Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century.”
~ Marshall McLuhan

If this statement is true, and if we consider the majority of this year’s Super Bowl ads, we’re becoming pretty forgettable.

Super Bowl advertising is eagerly anticipated by millions, almost as much as watching the game. (Some would argue that the ads are the main event). It’s a huge opportunity to hawk wares to a captive audience, and highly regarded as a showcase for some of the best & brightest commercials made.

So, I watched to see what cream would rise to the top, and was incredibly disappointed. Have I just become jaded and old-fashioned? As a reality check, I asked my teenage daughter if she found them entertaining. Her answer: “No.”

She was out of the room for the only one that I found powerfully memorable and worthwhile. It happened to be a serious ad, and featured Clint Eastwood (I’ll let that fact speak for itself). In case you missed it, here it is:

Aside from this one, I thought: “they just don’t make them like they used to!’ Okay, I’ll admit that the “we go” Budweiser dog ad was sort of cute, and I liked the one about entrepreneurs. So there, I found two more. But by and large there were too many ads and too little substance.

Of course, they don’t have to make them like they “used to”, except for maybe having some more class, more wit, more depth, more intelligent ingenuity.

Am I asking too much? I don’t think so. If the idea is to make a big impression, and get the most bang for the probably obscene amount of monies spent, they might take some tips from some great ads of Super Bowl’s past…

With the wealth of talent and creative energy in the world today, you’d think the 2012 Super Bowl ads could’ve been a little bit spectacular. In my opinion, it just goes to show that technology doesn’t equate with creativity, and bells and whistles don’t make the message.

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