June 20, 2011 In art, creativity, design, illustration, imagination, inspiration By Patricia Saxton

A Plethora of P's / #26: Pools

proactively punctuating life with the plausible, powerful possibilities of positive thought presented through a plethora of “P’s”.

– ♥ –

Pools are like self-contained mini-vacations. A clear, sparkling invitation to wash away worries, soak aching muscles, rejuvenate tired thoughts.
Water is movement, the flow of emotion, harmony and balance. Refreshing, cleansing, invigorating, weightless, necessary. … So plunge in and feel the tension ease. Splash and play. Float and do somersaults. Blow underwater bubbles. Or, if you’re like me, find a lane and swim and swim and swim. Your body will thank you, your heart will thank you, your mind will thank you. And you will thank the water.
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June 19, 2011 In appreciation, inspiration, intelligence By Patricia Saxton

Celebrating Dad

At 93, my father stands tall, walks a mile or two everyday, checks his email, writes letters, organizes old photos, reads, plays scrabble with a girlfriend and has nightly dinner with a fantastic group of friends named John, Paul and George… (where’s Ringo?). Hardly Beatle-esque though, they are retired engineers and teachers, with sharp minds, quick wits and good looks.

Arthur L. Saxton / 1940

It’s also something to see little old ladies flirting with your father. But they still know a good thing when they see it. And it’s not just the 6′ frame housing a man in his 90’s who still thinks and lives independently. My father represents all that is strong and honest.

Here’s a guy born and raised on a dairy farm, who worked the fields, milked the cows, tended Bert and Maude (the plow horses); the eldest son who keenly understood the value of hard work on a very real level.

But the farm couldn’t hold his gifted mind… he earned a scholarship and worked the rest of his way through college. From there he got a job with an oil company, rising to the most senior level among chemical engineers and earning the highly prized Thomas Edison Award for his patented achievements.

He was a bright star in his field, but remained insanely modest, brown-bagged his lunch, and spent every minute away from work at home with his family. And just as the farm couldn’t hold his mind, his career couldn’t entirely hold his spirit, so he spent nights and weekends tending his grand vegetable garden, planting trees (enough planted on a Pennsylvania property to be listed on the national forest registry), building tables from scrap wood and driving us batty over wet and dry recycling methods far before recycling was popular.

We were trained to turn off lights when we left a room, eat the food on our plates. I don’t think I heard him raise his voice more than a couple of times, nor complain about anything besides politicians. He was not especially effusive, but proud when we did our best. He was, and still is, one of the most steady, stable, smart and caring people I’ve ever known. A pillar of strength, the “salt of the earth”, a man of his word.

What beautiful lessons he taught his children, about truth and integrity ~ and perhaps the unintended lesson to follow one’s dreams. Engineers don’t think in terms of “dreams”, you see ~ theirs is a much more practical realm. Farming too is very tangible; a very direct, productive way of life. But his humble beginnings, his perseverance, his ability to foster his own skills and follow his own path while remaining unwaveringly loyal and considerate towards those he loved… are no small things, and are things that weave dreams into reality.

Fathers come in all forms. Today I celebrate the blessing of mine, who stands tall at 93, and whose work is not done ~ and what good work he does.

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June 14, 2011 In branding, business, intelligence, marketing, philosophy, presentation By Patricia Saxton

What’s the Big Deal About Branding? (part two)

Branding. No, not the hot iron kind on an animal’s behind (ouch! ~ do they still do that?), but marketing’s buzz-word of buzz-words.

As with many notions that take the spotlight ~ often becoming overused, diffused and diluted ~ one has to question it at some point. It’s never wise to take popular culture at face value, or hear a fancy phrase and automatically buy in. To borrow from the now old-fashioned new-age-speak, first it has to “resonate”. If it resonates, I’ll pay attention.

So, what IS the big deal about branding?

First of all, your brand is what I like to call your visual voice. It’s what you bring to market over and over and over. It’s how you’re identified, and yes, judged. It can, in effect, be the life or death of your business.

Egyptian Scales of Judgment

If you read “What’s the Big Deal About Branding? (part one)”, you got some of my thoughts on why it’s important. Namely, the pull and power of consistency and integrity ~ two key qualities that provide a valuable backdrop, a kind of moral yardstick for your business, while serving as a clear window for your audience to understand what you’re about.

Take a red target image for example. “Target” stores easily come to mind. It’s a consistent, steady symbol – exhibiting visual integrity. And that’s very good.

But take it a step further. If your experience at Target is repeatedly a good one, they’ve just about buttoned up the integrity piece, because you, the customer, feels confident, “safe and secure”. Trust has been earned; integrity deepens.

There are hundreds of similar examples. Like Mercedes, Nike, The Morton’s Salt girl. They’re consistent, identifiable, they stand for something, and the customer knows what that something is … and … there is trust.

So here’s the thing: imagery and words alone do not make a brand “work” … Three fundamental things feed into your success: your product, your service and your brand. One without the other will leave things flat (or send them spinning out of control) ~ but in tandem, goals are attainable. Basically:

  • If you’ve got a great product, but poor service, expect trouble.
  • With great service, but a bad product, good intentions won’t matter.
  • If you’ve got a great branding scheme, but a poor product or poor service, people are going to catch on – and move on.
  • A great product and great service, but a mixed-up brand message, creates confusion. Confusion is loss.

But when all three elements come together, singing the same song, in harmony, you’ve got strong branding and a heck of a better chance at success.

The wrapping on the package is that all three ~ product, service and “brand”  (your visual voice) ~ are your branding, and any business, marketer or designer worth their weight should consider all three in brand development. Ask the questions to find the commonality. Keep those 3 elements consistent, and integrity follows. And where integrity lives, people want to hang around.

© Patricia Saxton

Next up: Authenticity. Stay tuned.

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June 13, 2011 In art, creativity, design, drawing, illustration, imagination, inspiration By Patricia Saxton

A Plethora of P's / #25: Pigs That Fly

proactively punctuating life with the plausible, powerful possibilities of positive thought presented through a plethora of “P’s”.

– ♥ –

Why not? Can’t you just imagine them huddling in their pens, planning some nighttime fun? Their wings (invisible during the day to avoid alarming the humans) coming alive, carrying them effortlessly through the air under a shiny new moon; pigs and piglets soaring above field and fencepost, performing weightless pirouettes over the barn, their squeals of delight breaking midnight’s stillness as they tickle treetops and wreak havoc in the hen house.

Ah, if pigs could fly…  Maybe they’d teach us to lighten up, be a ham, play in the mud sometimes ~ and every now and then, perhaps, to enjoy our own small acre from a loftier, unexpected, improbable, fantastical and quite extraordinary point of view.

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June 9, 2011 In animation, art, branding, creativity, design By Patricia Saxton

Google Plays Les Paul

Didn’t expect to write two posts today, but more coolness came along that I couldn’t resist. Today’s Google Doodle is just too fun.

In honor of (what would have been) guitar legend Les Paul‘s 96th birthday, you can actually “strum” the strings. Of course, you won’t be able to play that Leo Kottke song like my brother did a few posts back, or recreate a Les Paul lick, but what a cute bit of ingenuity!

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June 9, 2011 In architecture, business, communication, creativity, design, leadership By Patricia Saxton

Apple's (Very Cool) Architectural Plans

“The word spectacular would be an understatement.”

These were the words of Cupertino Councilman Orrin Mahoney after hearing Steve Jobs’ presentation about plans for a new Apple Headquarters.

As an appreciator of everything Apple, this is exciting news. But regardless of your own personal relationship with “everything Apple”, this will be a stunning architectural feat in its own right.

For example, by moving the parking underground, the grounds will lose the asphalt and double the number of trees, including the addition of an apricot orchard. The campus will be efficient, beautiful and of course, state-of-the-art.

Another example of coolness-meets-practicality. Gotta love that!

 

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June 7, 2011 In advertising, branding, design, graphic design By Patricia Saxton

A More "Refined" Jack Daniel's… But Why?

Brand makeovers are all the rage. And as a designer, I often see the value. But honestly, in this case I’m missing the point.

You wonder sometimes what drives a change like this,” when it ain’t broke”… unless it is. Or somebody with clout says it needs to happen, and it becomes more about what’s on the cover than what’s inside. Hmmm.

Not that the new label isn’t a good one. Thankfully it doesn’t kill the brand by overly modernizing, and I admit the cleaner look is attractive.  I just don’t know why they bothered. The old label was just … so … Jack Daniels. Classic JD, forever, the way it was…. until now. Cleaned up and  more refined. (Only Jack Daniel’s isn’t supposed to be refined, as I recall?)

new

old

I have to admit though, that reading some of the articles about it were pretty interesting. For example, I never knew that Jack is brewed in a dry county. That’s a little crazy.

As for the label, they got rid of a lot of the text, including fun details like the population count of 361 (so what if it wasn’t accurate? ~ it was an interesting historical tidbit). Gone is the folksy description of how they achieve the rich flavor. They’ve also removed the claim that Jack Daniel’s is America’s oldest distillery, and they took off the name of Lem Motlow.

Now as I’ve learned, Motlow inherited the distillery when his Uncle Jack died in 1911. Motlow promptly put his name on the bottle and kept the company alive throughout the dark days of prohibition and through the controversy arising after he drunkenly shot a man dead while riding aboard a train in 1924.

This is great stuff. But maybe legends are passe’ now.

Even Jack Daniel’s portrait boasts a new name: apparently his real name was Jasper Newton. Okay, that’s cool to know, but since he’s been called Jack since 1866, I wonder what he’d have to say about that.

Oh well, the deed is done, but the vote is out. The label is still very black, and I assume the whiskey is still quality Tennessee sour mash, and at the end of the day, no one will really care that the label got a facelift. Of course, they wouldn’t have cared if it hadn’t, either.

…………………….

Afterthought: If no one cares either way, and the company isn’t suffering, maybe they did it … under the guise of updating and being more “honest” (ie, population, possibility that JD might not be the oldest distillery, etc.)…  but really and simply, just for the heck of it? 

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May 31, 2011 In advertising, branding, business, communication, presentation By Patricia Saxton

What's the Big Deal About Branding? (part one)

I’m not a big soda drinker. (“pop” for you midwesterners)

But the other day while filling up at the gas station, enjoying the first sunny day in forever, I realized it was downright hot outside. As I reveled in the solar warmth, the green green trees and blue blue skies, my eyes wandered over to a lonely looking soda machine. And quite suddenly, I was struck with desire. I wanted a soda. I just really wanted one.

So I got change from the attendant, put my shiny coins in the slot, and wa-la! ~ down tumbled a beautiful, cold bottle of Coke.

Yes, definitely a Coke. Because to me, if you’re gonna have a soda (or a “pop”), it should be “the real thing”. I might even want to teach the world to sing… in perfect harmony….

You probably get my point… Coke has real brand recognition. It’s strong. So much so that I remember their ads from 20 years ago, maybe more. They’ve made (and continue to make) an impression.

So, you say, yea, well, they’re big guns. They’re a big deal with a big name and big budgets and a big audience. What does Coca-Cola’s great advertising have to do with a small business or an entrepreneur?

A lot.

Take away the “big name” and all the trappings that go with it and you’ve essentially got what branding is all about: Consistency and integrity.

Coke’s example is this: a steady graphic look since its inception, modernizing with the times, but never losing its core visual ~ AND a steady message that’s upbeat, positive and rings of authenticity. By keeping both their look and their message consistent, they maintain the vital quality of integrity.

Branding isn’t just a logo. It’s not just a website. It’s not a twitter account. It IS everything you or your business presents to the public.

Every word and every image in every medium and circumstance speaks on your behalf. These are your “brand”. They represent you in person, and when you can’t be there (which is most of the time), they represent a virtual reflection.

So if you have 3 different websites with 3 different looks, if you have people with different voices handling your social media, if your visuals look clean and sharp in one place and sloppy in another, you will confuse your audience. And confusing your audience is not something to take lightly in a world where so much is vying for people’s attention.

So, yes, your brand, your “identity”, is a big deal. Keep it consistent and let it walk, and talk, with integrity. More on integrity and authenticity in “part two”… For the time being, let’s just say, make it the real thing.


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May 30, 2011 In appreciation, art, creativity, design By Patricia Saxton

A Plethora of P's / #23: Principles

proactively punctuating life with the plausible, powerful possibilities of positive thought presented through a plethora of “P’s”.

– ♥ –

Thank you ~ for your bravery, your love, your principled, unselfish courage ~ from the wells of our hearts, with a gratitude that knows no bounds.

“Who kept the faith and fought the fight; The glory theirs, the duty ours.”  ~Wallace Bruce

…………………………
Memorial Day, 2011
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May 28, 2011 In appreciation, books & stuff, inspiration, philosophy, words and language, writing By Patricia Saxton

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Great Relevance

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What a fabulous treat to have stumbled upon… Philosophy, books and film in tribute and reverent reflection of the great Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Emerson’s writings have been a mainstay of inspiration to me since my early teens. So I was really pleased to see the always interesting BrainPickings site acknowledging Emerson’s 208th birthday with a terrific post about his life, work and timeless value, including a link to a new publication of Emerson’s famous Self-Reliance by Seth Godin’s Domino Project.

Also included, the marvelous documentary film “Emerson: The Ideal in America” by David Beardsley. I have to tell you, it makes my spirit glad to spread this information. I hope it’ll inspire you to revisit some of the works of one of the world’s truly great thinkers.

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“Here is the real secret to Emerson’s work: He stands still, he listens to his heart, and he writes as he listens.” (from the film.)
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