Im reading this great book at the moment by Marty Neumeier called ‘The Brand Gap’. It’s a book that I feel is so good that I read it nearly every day. The reason for that is to be able to see the world through the prism of the book’s lessons. Here’s one line that’s now screwed into my brain forever more. A brand is what ‘they’ say it is.

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function:

There are many things that can be faked. Your work ethic is not one of these things.

I’ve always found myself drawn to people who, to use Seth Godin’s term, ‘ship’.

Execute. Sell. Do shit. I like shippers, they’re usually the ones with the best stories; the best failures and the best successes.

function:

Monocle magazine, when it arrived, was a compelling combination of all the things I found myself drawn to in life. The editorial premise that stuff – well made products and services hardwired with passion and provenance – mattered alongside geo-politics resonated hugely with me. It was grown-up….

#Youth

(via theamericanlegacy)

A NYC Taxi driver wrote:

I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked.. ‘Just a minute’, answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90’s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940’s movie.

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The below is taken from HUH Magazine

With the highly controversial London 2012 Olympic logo soon to be gone from our billboards and television screens once and for all, we decided to take a look at some other well-known logos and find out exactly how much their respective creative agencies charged for them.

Of course, the worth of a logo is a famously hard thing to determine. The very fact that a simple or low-key design often works far better than something intricate or brightly coloured means traditional methods for calculating how much to charge - using things like time and experience - are often thrown out the window. As such, some of the most famous logos of all time have been commissioned for next to nothing, while astronomical sums have been paid for designs most people wouldn’t think about twice (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing). So here you have it, a run down of logos, spanning a price spectrum of $0 to $211 million USD.

Nike - $35

The Nike ”Swoosh” is perhaps one of the most well-known “cheap” logos - costing the sports brand just $35 USD when co-founder Phil Knight commissioned graphic design student Carolyn Davidson back in 1971. When it was finished, Knight said “I don’t love it… but I think it will grow on me.”

The iconic logo has remained relatively unaltered since its conception, with the only change being made in 1995 when the brand ditched the Nike text that used to be cradled within the Swoosh, opting for a simpler, stand-alone Swoosh instead. As a thank you for her work, Phil Knight gave Davidson a golden Swoosh ring with an embedded diamond in 1983, as well as an undisclosed amount of shares in the company - supposedly $600,000 worth.

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(via explore-blog)

As I get ready to move apartment, times are changing. Time itself is changing. Today for instance was what some girls might call ‘me’ time and some guys might call ‘man’ time. They are different in their nature but there are of course some similarities.

You know the point when you know you won’t be going on holidays for a while but you need a holiday? I like to call that ‘man’ time. It’s similar to me time but can include other guys or guy type things.

The week started with a bromance. A bromance documented in the national paper no less. It went into some of the dynamics of man time. That started me thinking. Guys need guys and they also need their time out. I use to golf, now I run. I also have the odd drink which helps too.

Today started with a ‘This day is gona have to happen without me’ thought. We, had a good meeting out in the burbs on an exciting project after which we drove into town. ‘we’ being another guy who in turn we met another guy. Guy talk occurred. I then went for lunch by myself in bibi’s, a great place if you haven’t been. I chilled out, no paper, no phone,no nothin. Just me. I then went back into the store and done a few odd jobs, grabbed coffee and a couple more pick ups before spotting a nice jacket for myself. I have to put it away until the Autumn but a great buy none the less. I then took myself for one of those two hour haircuts in the Bedford Stu. No phones, no paper, no nothin.

I’m now eating my take out from Fallon & Byrne with a bottle of Galway hooker pale ale ( great by the way) thinking about the vintage architect table I picked up for the new place.

Man time.

explore-blog:

Jessica Hagy of Indexed fame charts 20 ways to find your calling for Forbes – the best thing since Wendy MacNaughton’s Venn philosophy.

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Lesson 1.

Always remember the why of it.

What we are trying to pull off here is crazy hard. We are trying to bring manufacturing back home when the story is always that manufacturing leaves never to come back. But our town wants to make jeans again. It spent 3-4 decades learning how to do that well. And it is not going to let that skill go without a fight.

This is our fight.

But we will not rely just on sentiment of our town making jeans, and superior quality. That will only make us as good as the best. And that will not be enough for us to get the town making jeans again. A big part of the fight will be our ability to have ideas that have never been done before. The HistoryTag is just one. There will be more. And judging by the sheer number of orders, people want us to win. We had almost 3 months worth of orders within the first two weeks. That has brought with its problems to solve. And we have had some teething problems. So I want to share some of the Lessons I have learnt so far.

Lesson 2.

Doing the right thing isn’t the same as doing the smart thing.

This is my learning about doing the right thing. We made the decision to make orders in the date that they were received. It was the right thing to do. But it meant we would be making one of this, and one of that. We were doing the right thing, for sure. But we were also doing the most in-efficient thing too. Instead of making 50 pairs a week, we would be lucky to be making 25 pairs.

So our desire to get everyone their jeans meant people were waiting much longer than they had too. It was the opposite of what we wanted. Yup, doing the right thing isn’t always the same as doing the smart thing. We now make our production in bulk.

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function:

Another treaty? Yeah… but now with even more nonsensical arguments for voting ‘no’.

Have you seen Greece?

That’s Ireland if our benevolent overlords in Berlin ever feel like ditching us.

So, this is a fairly simple choice.

‘Yes’ sends a signal that we’ll play the game.

A petulancy inspired…

To vote Yes or No on May 31st ?

Here we are again, only here is somewhere further back than when I last checked. Another European treaty against a background of absolute confusion. Quite likely a wasted exercise no matter the outcome. With the recent news about Spain, the election of a new French President and the obvious Greek question, it is almost laughable that we now vote on a ‘stability’ treaty. A ‘Yes’ vote will simply say, we will go along with the policies created for us by Berlin. No harm done … not for now anyway.

I read an article last week which argued about how much economists and business people know about each others worlds. It made utter sense to me because I know ‘fuck all’ is the answer. I studied economics and business and they don’t mix well, hence our current predicament.

Economics is a social science and involves a heavy dose of politics. It deals with Macro and Micro issues. Only when it deals with micro does it’s relevancy come into the sphere of day-to-day business. Micro is everyday stuff, reality some call it. Supply and Demand and their crossing equal to price. Micro fuels the Macro, there is no Yin without Yang; how contrary forces are inter-connected.

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