The Death of an Old Friend

Every night as my 20 month old son takes his bath, I take my guitar and play a hand full of songs that I’ve managed to figure out how to play ranging from “Twinkle, Twinkle” to “Here I am to Worship.” Well Tuesday was no different. 8:00 pm rolled around and we headed up the stairs, he got into the bathtub and I started playing. We sang and played just like every other night. When Will was finished I leaned my guitar against the bathroom sink and lifted him out of the tub, dried him off and turned around to drain the tub. In that split second he reached out to grab my guitar. Everything suddenly began to move in slow motion. His poor little hand couldn’t handle the weight of the guitar and it slowly fell to its death.

The moment the head of the guitar hit the floor, it instantly snapped off. Will stood there completely still, not saying anything for several seconds. He was shocked. “OH NO! Broke…” he said in his sad little voice. You could see that he felt SO bad. I picked him up and said “It’s okay buddy. I should have put it away.” We moved on to his bedroom and got ready for bed.

In the few minutes that followed, I thought about what had just happened and got very emotional and began to cry a little. I know what you’re thinking. It’s just a dumb guitar! I thought the same thing. But I think this is why I cried. First I felt bad that my little boy felt bad about what he had done. I just wanted to make him know that it was okay. He is so precious to me and I love him dearly. Secondly, I realized the my dear old friend that had been with me for 10 years was gone. I loved that guitar. It had been with me through some really good times and some pretty tough times, too. It was goofy with me, It was sad with with me, but most of all it took me before the Lord to worship Him. Those moments of confession and praise have been so important in my life and my guitar helped take me there. Well, I will miss my old friend. Until I find a new guitar I think I’ll be singing acapella!

How NOT to Protect a Brand

While I was out today, I found myself having to prepare for battle against a major migraine that had been stalking me since early this morning.  Thinking of all the weapons I have in my arsenal, I grabbed 2 ibuprofen, shot them down my throat and headed to Starbucks for a shot of caffeine to numb myself up before the ensuing battle.  While waiting for my caramel  macchiato in the drive through I noticed a basket on the ledge of the window that made me wonder.

This is why Branding is so important.

As you can see, in the basket there is a sign someone made out of, what looks to be, the remnants of a used paper grocery bag along with an old water bottle filled with what may be someone’s chewing tobacco left-overs, but I’m hoping it’s the Starbucks Via they seem to be attempting to advertise.  Upon that very appetizing beverage bottle sits a label made out of what looks like old medical tape. Now I don’t claim to be a marketing genius, but something seems off here. Everywhere you look inside or outside of most Starbucks you will see professionally printed signage, handouts and packaging, all the way down to your own personalized gift card.  From what I understand, they even send stencils to each store to create their hand drawn chalk boards.  So I have a feeling that the big wigs at Starbucks corporate would have a problem with this little setup.  Over all I believe this would fall under the category of “FAIL.”

THE BEGINNING…

So here we are, Blog Numero Uno. I’m not sure exactly what you’re hoping to read when you look at my Blog Space, but I’ll tell you what I’m thinking you might find.

You might find a lot of design ideas here, “the good, the bad, and the ugly” so to speak. Graphic design is a huge part of who I am. I can’t turn it off! I see it everywhere. If we were driving down the road together on some random Tuesday and saw a billboard, I could tell you what font they used and who else has used that same font. I see so many things out there that inspire me – wonderful design work that gets my wheels turning and makes me want to run to my computer to create something of my own. However, I must admit that I often see design that is – and there’s no beating around the bush here – just plain bad. Bad design also inspires me, just in a slightly different way. I may sound a bit like a beauty pageant contestant when I say this, but when I see bad design, it makes me feel sad, and I just want to help people. In fact, if money were no object, I would do graphic design for others at no charge. Unfortunately, though, money is an object, one that my family seems to need from time to time. So I have to charge for what I do, but I still love it. When I see inspiring design – of both the good and bad kinds – I think I will use this blog to share it. So be ready for some iPhone pictures to show up in the coming months of graphic design that I spot here and there and everywhere in between.

You might also find some charming stories about my life with my wife and son. My wife, Becky, is a teacher, and so she’s home for the summer, which I love. And my son, he’s 19 months old. He’s learning something new every day. Today we went garage-sale-ing as a family, and that was great. If this weren’t such an important blog – what, with it being the first and all – I would probably write about our garage sale experiences. Now there’s a chance to focus on some graphic design! I’m talking signage, people! You can’t put out a 3 by 5 card with your garage sale address written in pencil and expect a great turn out, folks! But alas, I’m not writing about garage sales today. Maybe some other time.

You might find other random topics, like what the Lord is showing me, what I’m currently working on, or some other current issue at hand.

You won’t, however, find that I have very many pompous political opinions. I’m not likely to find the cure for cancer, although I would love to. You won’t find me writing about anything too terribly serious. And you probably won’t find that I write in my Blog on a daily basis. But from time to time, I do plan to chime in with my thoughts, opinions, wonderings, and observations. And I hope that you enjoy it.