The Dog Under My Desk...

Today I am working on the submision of a group of 73ideas logo designs for a book on logo design. As I sit here during my workday, sipping a Gordon Biersch Hefeweizen, working on my own work, I think about how thankful I am. This year has been a complicated one. I have a client that has promised and promised, but is enough months behind that I stopped working for them two months ago... that's 5 months behind in their bills... I feel that. But despite that, and anything else - I can't help but think about how good I have it.

My dog Mindy was the reminder. An hour or so ago, she was pushing up against my leg for me to let her under my desk. It's something that happens many times in a day, but somehow took me back this time. Back to when I was a founding partner in a new company called Avizia - about to land the Safeway account - just not knowing it yet.

I was working 16-18 hours a day, and most weekends. Because of this, our parent company -- PPC Retail Design, the one that had put up the venture capital -- made the special exception of letting me have Mindy in the office. I remember there being some people that were pretty upset by this. The kinds of people that only see that you are getting something they are not - but not thinking about what it is costing you. I was there before any of them, and there for an entire workday after them. I worked over 30 hours straight once. I worked all but a half day of Thanksgiving weekend - alone - on a made-up project, created to set me up to fail - to create grounds to force me out of a company in which I was a founding partner... but that's another story...

The point is, I'm blessed. Here I sit with the same dog trying to get under my desk that was sitting under my desk then - but under such completely different circumstances. I have an amazing, loving, suportive wife, a beautiful home, mountains and palm trees all around, a reasonable boss (me)... It's a long list. Literally every focus, priority and detail of my life is different now.

I bet she knows. We've got a happy house. She gets up with me at 6 every morning and lies under my desk. I'm thankful it's a different desk.

What a difference 5 years makes. I feel like I was young then.

Audi Wins 24 Hours of Le Mans.

I just couldn't let it pass without mentioning. Audi has once again (despite an INCREDIBLE showing by Peugot), won the 24 hours of Le Mans.



This is the absolute pinnacle of auto racing... and not just because I'm a fan.

24 hours of wear and tear, pushing it to the limit, and getting absolutely no sleep for the course of the race (and hours of prep time beforehand, and celebration afterwards). It is the ultimate test of endurance for both the man (men) and machine.

Audi has won eight years in a row (counting a Bugatti win in '05 with the Audi engine). A feat not duplicated in any racing series.

Catching Up.

The last week or so have really been something. Even my early morning hours which I usually dedicate to disciplines - reading, writing, etc. aren't getting much done for me. I have a couple opinion pieces in the works though, so you're going to be getting another dose of "planet greenfraud" unleashed any day now.

To catch up just a little though...

Tracy's Back:
For those of you "in the know" Tracy's back issues have gotten worse. We finally ended up taking her to Mayo Hospital (ER) on Monday. We got little more than meds (a little information), but have an appointment that should help narrow a course of action scheduled for Thursday morning. She is in absolutely unbearable pain -- standing only to walk to the restroom -- say a prayer for her if you will.

Welcome to our world, Mr. Charles Davidson Kratz:
My best friend (of 16 years now... goodness we're getting old!) Jeremy, and his wife Amy welcomed their first child, a son, into the world last week.

Tracy and I were able to swing by for a few minutes and say hello on the morning of his first day. Makes us think it might be time to consider Charles having a playmate around his age... He is one CUTE baby. Well behaved, too. I have no idea where he got that part from...

A Brilliant Blog.

I have been reading an absolutely brilliant blog with consistently good content. And every time I visit, I find myself wanting to copy, paste and present the information here (with full credit and a link, of course).

Instead, I am simply going to profile it here, and put a link in the sidebar.

If you want more than simply to be entitled to your opinion.
If you care enough to be well informed.
If you give a crap about our country--you'll want to add this to your frequent reads:

http://www.uncorrelated.com/

Like this post by Mick Stockinger:
I was listening to some commentary from Juan Williams who considered the prospects of the general election in terms of Obama's presence, charisma and fluid speaking style--constrasting it with John McCain's, hunched, halting and ineloquent recent speech. For Williams, and I imagine for most liberals, its all about style. For me, and I imagine most conservatives, its all about substance. John McCain won the Republican nomination because for better or worse, he appeared to most voters as the most substantive candidate. If it was a matter of style, Huckabee would now be looking for a running mate.

Who wins this argument? I don't rightly know. Are more people fascinated with style or impressed with substance? The polls appear to suggest that substance still rules the day, but I concede the significant difference between polls and elections. My dread of an Obama presidency is similarly less about him and what he would do, and more a concern with whether America has lost its soul. If it really is an MTV country, we are all screwed. read more

Pre-Pixelated T's

This is sheer genius. Nice work, David.

Support Creative Thought.
Get yours. http://www.ironicsans.com/

Quote of the Day.

Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.
-Anonymous

Are you doing your part to save the planet?

For more information, visit:
www.killthetrees.org

Clinton Wins! Democrats Everywhere in Celebration!

Excerpts from an NPR article with commentary in red.

The one-time "inevitable" candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination ended her campaign Saturday with an unequivocal endorsement of her rival…

This can't be the completely unqualified, absolute buffoon she was running against, right? I mean, if that "red phone" is going to ring in the middle of the night, we don't that guy to be the one answering it, right?

"You can be so proud," she told the cheering crowd, "that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States. And that is truly remarkable, my friends.” Nicely spun. Turn the loss into a win. Yes. What you achieved was truly remarkable. I flunked a test once…does that count? I just asked Roget, and “Rejected” and “Groundbreaking” are not synonyms.

Clinton likewise acknowledged the historic significance of Barack Obama becoming the first African-American to be the presidential nominee of a major party. Calling this a "turning-point election," she said, "When we first started, people everywhere asked the same questions: Could a woman really serve as commander-in-chief? Well, I think we answered that one." Yes. I believe we did. Don’t think I would have phrased it quite like that. You do understand that you are not the next president right? This isn’t an acceptance speech. I’m sorry. I really do hate to interrupt in the middle of a paragraph like this, but I just couldn’t help it. First of all, this is not, was not, and never will be about a woman being president. This was the question of you being President. To which the answer was “No”. "And, could an African-American really be our president? Sen. Obama has answered that one." No. He has not. That answer is scheduled for November. Once again, this is not an acceptance speech (and if it were, Hillary, it wouldn’t be for BOTH of you). "Together, Sen. Obama and I achieved milestones essential to our progress as a nation, part of our perpetual duty to form a more perfect union."

Umm... Sorry, one last question. Is union the root word for unity?

Would the company not yet advertising on the green platform please stand up?

Just the other day I was emptying bags from a quick trip to Target. Now don't get me wrong. I love Target. They do a lot of good that other retailers don't (and nobody brands better). BUT. In an effort to do the obligatory "green" positioning, they have printed on the side of their plastic bags: "10 Ways to Re-use Your Target Bag". Allow me to share a couple.

• Number 3: Water Balloon
• Number 5: Soggy Laundry
• Number 7: Toiletry Tote
• Number 10: Care Package Padding

Contrived? Perhaps it could be used as a first aid kit, which WILL be required after you hit someone with your new 4 gallon water balloon... or for your back after you attempt to throw it.

Were it my job to create the list, I would have given two key directives.

1. Spend more than 5 minutes in brainstorming and revision.
2. If you can only come up with 5 that aren't contrived, reduce list to 5.

One final thought on the bag.

Is the irony of printing an "envoronmentally concious" positioning device on an environmentally wasteful/hazardous piece lost on everyone but me?

It's like carrying your reusable hemp grocery sack into Whole Foods to buy bottled water. You just saved the world from one plastic bag -- 420 of which could be manufactured from the volume of plastic in the 4 bottles of water you just purchased...

I must not know any environmentalists...

It seems that everyone is environmentalist and interestingly enough, everyone is also now a scientist. The politician, the corporate executive, the common man, is now rebelling against the cautionary words of scientists...of science...and saying, "No, you're wrong". (Kind of like our position before God sometimes, isn't it?)

Here's my question. If everyone is now an environmentalist, fuel is the devil and cars should run on rainbows and butterfly sprinkles... then why is everyone complaining about the cost of gas?

Isn't the cost of gas
and the repercussions of that cost a GOOD thing?

Increased cost equals decreased use.
Increased cost means changes in habits.
Increased cost means the development of viable alternatives.

So why haven't I heard a single person at the checkout, at the restaurant, or in the media say, "Thank God for these gas prices."?

I guess I just haven't run into any environmentalists...

Yup. I'm Crazy Like That.

Most of the truly crazy things that I have done in my life - scaling buildings, doing flips off bridges into shallow water below, hotwiring and "borrowing" the HC golf carts for joyriding purposes at 3am (I did put them back), climbing out of car windows onto their roofs at expressway speeds--have not (allow me to repeat: NOT) had the endorsement of parents. In fact, hi mom and dad, sorry you had to hear it like this... love you. Remember, I'm past this all now. :)

OK. So like I said, most of the craziness has not had parental endorsement, but this past weekend I did something insane... not only in front of a parent -- but FOR the parent!

Tracy and I went in to Midland (TX) to help her mom settle in to her new house, unpacking and hooking things up. She has a fabulous set of bronze dog sculptures and Tracy and I immediately saw the PERFECT place for them - it was as if it had been built for them.



The only problem is that the dogs are about 4 feet tall, at least 80lbs each, and awkward as all get out... oh, and that perfect place is about 8ft up... and we have a 6ft ladder. If you do the math, that means that to have the feet of the dogs level with the top of the cabinets, I have to be standing on the VERY top of the ladder....



I have to say that I don't know if I have ever pushed myself quite to this physical limit. It was enough just picking them up to carry them, but taking them up a ladder, balancing on the VERY top to rotate them over the cabinets and adjusting balance to set them on their feet and shift the weight to them, was REALLY something. My legs could barely lift the combined weight while going up the ladder and it became more of a "point of no return" principal. When you're half way up the ladder with one, you don't want to come back down. You do--you just don't want to try it.



I have to admit, after doing the first one, I was less enthused about the second. I waited two days, actually. Can't beat the end result though. Wouldn't trade that 20 minutes of my body trembling afterwards for how it turned out!

Cat Found!

I stumbled across this the other day and just could not stop laughing. So long as you know what this is, I just don't know how you couldn't, as well!

The Branding Blog.

Announcing the new business blog from 73ideas.
A new branding blog is executing a hostile takeover of both the name and domain http://www.73perspectives.com/.

It is to be a veritable mixed bag of design commentary, branding principles and techniques, as well as commentary on current business events and corporate decisions. It is my goal to make this a great resource, filled with both design and branding insight. And as I work on my book on branding, readers of 73perspectives will be the first to have access to that content.

Please feel free to link to the new blog at: http://www.73perspectives.com/. Or email it, pass the word along, to anyone that you feel might find it helpful, relevant, or just interesting.

Thanks!
Dwight Knowlton

PS: If you are linked to this blog, it's url will remain the same on blogspot (http://73perspectives.blogspot.com/), as well as replacing www.dwightknowlton.com.

A New 'Stang and a Fine Pair of Wrangler Denims.

One has to admit, the new 'Stang is a great design - still I don't see myself in one. Or maybe I do... or did.

While I had the Porsche in for service recently, I had to select a rental car. Since the complimentary rental car from Hertz is a one door, three wheeled, pedal powered Kia. I upgraded. That is, I meant to upgrade.

I asked the gentleman behind the desk if they had any Jettas. To which he replied, "We have no Yetta". Aah... A Frenchman in Arizona. So I don't know if he's just not a car guy or what, but he then asks if a "Mezda...n" would be OK. I don't know what this is, but I assume that it's probably a Mazda somwhere in the range that a Wolksvagen Yetta would be in... you know, four doors, a little sporty. Nicely equipped for the price point. So to this question, I reply, "We".

We sign the papers, he hands me a set of keys and a keyless entry fob from 1982. You know, the square one with little square buttons that looks like a shrunken garage door opener. I was surprised that Mazda would do such a thing, but thought that perhaps that they had lost the real one and been able to pick up a universal replacement at a truck stop. Alas, no. It is not from 1982, but from a domestic. As I walk to my assigned bay, I see that the "Mezda...n" is the new retro Mustang. I am puzzled by this being the second choice after asking for an upgrade to the Yetta, but am intriuged, and think to myself - this should be sorta fun for an afternoon.

Well, as it turned out, I upgraded from the one door Kia, but only in exterior sheetmetal design and horsepower. I am quite sure that the two share the same single mold, entirely same shade -- entirely same texture, lost in a sea of sameness, entirely plastic interior. The design for the most part - gauges, shifter, etc. is good, but the execution is terrible. The shifter, for example, is painted plastic trying to be metal -- but it has a giant seam (from being so poorly molded out of plastic) running up and across it -- further delineated by an obvious change in the finish of the "no really, this is metal" paint where it pulled back from the seam.

They did do a nice job on the exhaust note. It has a nice rumble sound though it did not seem overly powerful. This was the base V8 though, and while it was fine, it did not have the gumption of the 2.5 ton SUV it was replacing for the day. Not a good thing for a V8 car weighing half as much. It was not the GT however, and from the times listed online, I have to say that the GT would feel fast. I can only hope that if one optioned a GT there would be a little better delivery on the interior, as well.

It was interesting enough to have for a couple hours - but I was happy enough to turn it in.

Two Quotes for the Day.

Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.
- Evan Esar

Could this be applied to campaign rhetoric?
- Dwight Knowton

Great Expectations.

Sometimes while branding other businesses,
I fail to realize truths about mine.

It's a natural phenomonon that occurs whenever you are too close--to anything. That's exactly why companies like Safeway have paid consultants like myself rediculous amounts of money to take a look at their branding/positioning/perception in the marketplace... even though they have perfectly capable people on the inside.

This morning I realized (or re-realized) a truth. I have been working on a new project for a client that had a tight deadline for production, and the product needed to be shipped next day to NYC for a convention the client was attending. I have used a company from California for nearly 4 years now - and have always had the best of experiences. This time around - nothing. No responses, no tracking numbers... nothing. Last night I received an email from the client that the goods had been received and were perfect. That's great, but I'm still sitting here with that kind of empty feeling you get when your reputation is on the line and it's looking like you're not going to deliver. So I think to myself, "I need to find a new company that's more dependable".

Now that's an interesting thought. After all, the convention starts today - the client received shippment yesterday - all is well. But it is not just about the product, it's about the experience, the path getting there... One of the products I was looking for was confidence that my expectations would be met. Confidence in a seamless process is a key deliverable.

So here was my epiphany. I have made the same mistake. I have created client expectations over a period of time: delivered a project a week early, given more than the bid included, etc., then when I come down to the wire on a deadline - but still deliver - the client is dissapointed/upset. And I think to myself, "What is wrong with this client? I met the deadline!".

Expectation.
I met the deadline, but not the expectation...

So we have to remember to manage expectations, too. Just like the fine folks in CA that have over-delivered for me for 4 years -- it only takes once, and the client may just be looking for alternatives.