Work, in Plain English

My background is in graphic design, and I’m passionate about communication in all its forms, from surrealistic poetry to the social media tsunami. This passion expresses itself as a fierce drilling into the essence of a company’s culture, message and vision. As a result, I’m able to understand and express a brand in broader terms—where it’s headed, who it can serve next and how it can respond to unexpected events, for example.

I’ve recently been recruited to contribute in this way to a company and its products. This includes design, but extends beyond it to all that gives it a voice. As always, I’ll be renaming what I do regularly as new facets appear to be wondered at and/or wrestled with. My official title is Brand Manager, my actual functions can be paraphrased as Mug Washer… but the spirit of what I’m doing can, I think, be expressed more accurately as Brand Champion.

Do you feel you’re an easy fit into your current job/work title? or does what you do and who you are extend beyond its boundaries?

The biggest challenge of this project was following the themes I had set in the first CD of the Live at Giannelli Square series, while not following too rigidly. We also went from gel case to all-cardboard, which effected even more details. Alan has let me know he’s very happy with the results.

I spent a bit of time with the details of the cover image. There are subtle color tones in the contours of the face. And blue is always a little nerve-wracking, because clients can be fooled by rich hues they see on the computer monitor, and disappointed when they see the printed piece. I think I found a happy medium.

Grammy winner Alan Broadbent has long been a major force behind the scenes in jazz, whether it was accompanying Irene Kral on some of the most exquisite vocal albums ever recorded, contributing award-winning arrangements to Natalie Cole or playing piano with Charlie Haden’s Quartet West.

Everyone seems to be reminding us to Dream Big.
I want to make sure these things are clear:

You don’t need to dream of Big Things, like Huge Projects, a Big Business, a Big House, or sales of a Kajillion Widgets. You can. I’m just clarifying that this is not what’s meant.

You need (as if your life depended on it) to set your sights, your intentions, your attention, on What You Want. This means ALL of what you want, including the bits you may have been told are impossible. “Go ahead and create nice things, but forget about creating outrageously beautiful things.” “Go ahead and start a business, but forget about having time for your family.”

To Dream Big is to not settle.

To Dream Big is to name your terms.

To Dream Big is to understand that what you want may not happen in the form you expected it, or that you’ll discover it wasn’t what you wanted after all, but you spent your time on this earth doing everything you could to see it through.

To Dream Big is to give all of yourself to something that matters—to you.

These fabric patterns were originally inspired by a Spoonflower camouflage design challenge, but have continued to evolve. I was looking for a way to express the feeling of freedom in a way that explores some alternate paths we take to create it.

The original pattern was a bit simpler. I like this one a lot better, and am putting together a bunch of new colorways for it.

Heartwings: Puzzled Flutter II

Heartwings: Puzzled Flutter

Your customer service
does a whole bunch more
to build your brand
than your logo does.

— Me

I just got a bunch of swatches from Spoonflower (on premium quilting weight cotton), many of them exploring stripes. A few of them continue this lavender-plus-mint pastel theme I originally tested with a series of Mini Argyles. Today’s photo session began a bit late, as the sun was getting sleepy, but I think I’ve managed to capture the colors.

Dotted Stripes: Lavender & Mint II

Dotted Stripes: Lavender & Mint

The Heartstripes theme is a continuation of ideas I posted last winter.

Horizontal Heartstripes: Lavender & Mint

Here’s the whole set, posted as a collection on Spoonflower. I’ll post the other colorways this week—not quite as organized as this set, but hopefully some inspiration for you.

I’m up to my ears at my new job, keeping many plates spinning and meeting daily challenges. Bart, my new boss, is a Type A poster child—constantly regrouping, relentlessly brainstorming, and perpetually squeezing every bit of ability/potential/experience out of everyone around him. We’ve got an amazing team, thank goodness. These are highly proactive folks who take incredible pride in what they do.

It’s been a whirlwind… but it came to a screeching halt this weekend when my car (slightly overdue, as a matter of fact, for its 100K maintenance work) stopped dead at an intersection late Saturday night, and would not be roused to even limp over to a decent parking spot. Bottom line: We were somewhat stranded for the next two days, and while Monday became simply Work from Home Day, Sunday Errand Day became Sunday Baking Day!

I’ve been saving this recipe I tore from a 2008 Sunset Magazine. That’s FOUR YEARS. Submitted by Karen Bagshaw of San Francisco, it looked incredibly easy and super delicious. I’ve rotated it through my To File box all that time, picking it up and saying, “I’ve just got to do this!” and then putting it back in the box.

“It’s time,” proclaimed the universe, “that you bake those almond cakes.” And so I did.

It was easy, and they were delicious. Here’s the recipe:

Easy Almond Cakes
1 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. almond extract
1/4 tsp. salt
Cooking-oil spray (I just used a paper towel to wipe the butter from the sides of the saucepan I melted the butter in, and wiped that onto my baking dishes)

Makes two cakes
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, butter, eggs, almond extract, and salt.
Butter (or spray) two 9-inch pie pans.
Divide batter evenly between pans and sprinkle each half of the almonds.
Bake until light brown around edges, about 30 minutes.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Today is my last day with Internet Brands. I’ve learned a lot over the five years I worked with the company, expanding my view of the web not only as a revolution, but also as a tremendous commodity. I had a blast learning to think creatively about web pages as valuable products, as well as avenues for many kinds of partnership. There are a lot of things I’m grateful for, quite a few people I plan to stay connected to, and a few things I’ll especially miss.

Yesterday—my last onsite day with the company, a coworker drew back the blinds of our 11th floor window just in time to reveal a thick fog rolling in beneath an exquisite sunset (the ocean, just two miles away, was completely blanketed). As usual, I quickly messaged some friends on the east side of the building so they could catch the view. One of them captured this moment on camera and sent it to me.

Bye-bye, IB! Bye-bye, everyone!

Sunset photo by James Pestridge

Maybe the greatest danger of old age is the amount of time we’ve had to reinforce our own self-deceptions.

Photo by DElight

Reading Simon Garfield’s Just My Type, this made me cry:

“Twenty years ago, no one
had the slightest idea
what a type designer was.
If they had miraculously
heard of it, they would say
things like, ‘Oh, I thought
they were all dead.’”

—Matthew Carter

The Beatrice Ward “This is a Printing Office” broadside also got me weepy. And yikes, I’m just a third of the way through the book!