Justin and I spent last week rockin’ (musically and quite literally) on The Rock Boat Niner (TRB). One of our longstanding and amazing clients, Sixthman, is giving our team the opportunity this year to experience each of their cruises, and as destiny would have it, we ended up on the Carnival Destiny en route to Nassau.

I should preface that the music lineup (Sister Hazel, Tonic, Hanson, Zac Brown Band, etc.) isn’t stuff that you’d find in my iTunes, so as an outsider and first-timer on TRB, I didn’t know what to expect. That being said, the event as a whole really exceeded my expectations.

There was always a lot going on and a ton of talent on board, though a couple performances stood out to me — Hanson and Blackberry Smoke. Hanson (also a recent client of ours) surprised many as they drew one of the largest crowds, had great stage presence and showed that they’ve grown into admirable musicians. Blackberry Smoke delivered solid, crunchy rock-n-roll with the same passion and fervor through three sets (kudos to them for playing an extra set in lieu of us not being able to land at Half Moon Cay due to weather).

In between the music and the mingling, the ship had much to keep us occupied, including a spiraling water slide, roof-top mini golf, and Tron-tastic atrium that held the casino and shops. Though the best part of the event would undoubtedly be the people. I was amazed by how many come from all over the country (the world, even) to get together on that one little ship. We spent a majority of our time just hanging out, people-watching and chatting. It was interesting to get unique viewpoints from people of different backgrounds, newbies, veterans, etc. TRB really did draw a great range of folks and everyone meshed together well.

From the moment we arrived to the dwindling hours of the last night/morning, the operations were, well, smooth sailing. It was obvious Sixthman spent great lengths to ensure great fun without hiccup, and it payed off. And that trucker air-freshener in the welcome/survival kit was the proverbial icing on the cake.

Photos courtesy of Jesse St. John.

<—— That’s Mayor McCheese, he is one of the hundreds of CubeeCraft characters available to download cut and assemble from CubeeCraft. I stumbled across these incredible creations a few weeks and can’t stop downloading and building them to spice up my desk here at work. So if you are looking to add some excitement grab a few and get to cutting.

Nothing can beat a family dinner and that held true this past Saturday. We all got together for the annual Christmas/New Years dinner, but this year was a little different. Not only did we have a ton of people around the table, we had dinner at Craig and Kari’s house as opposed to a restaurant like years past. I flexed my culinary prowess by cooking potato and tomato gratin. Nick brought some key lime pie (which he didn’t make).

Highlights include:

• Yetty working on the party beginning at 8 am
• Nick under cooking most of the steaks
• An in depth conversation about the Three Musketeers and Chris O’Donnell
• Kari ripping through three layers of boxes while wearing a scooter helmet and gloves
• Me winning the name game with Lloyd Christmas
• Both “John Bowles” and “The Bowles’” being characters in the same round of the name game

We developed this brand name and identity for the kids ministry at NewSpring Church. We wanted the name to be directly connected to the parent brand but also speak to the playfulness of kids “bouncing off the walls”. KidSpring is a fun and exciting world of new adventures and experiences, with eight different age appropriate environments, and we wanted something flexible with endless opportunities.

Included in our development of the KidSpring brand was “Bruce Springsteen”, the new KidSpring Mascot. You can see him below giving you a nice warm greeting. I’m pretty fond of Bruce.

Do great brands really get to be great through advertising? Or is it their remark-ability that makes them great? Good branding is more than something catchy that people will remember, but really it is when a company knows who they are, what makes them great, and how to use that to their advantage in the marketplace. At the end of the day, advertising is a defense strategy.

There isn’t anything wrong with advertising, after all, it is essentially telling the great story that is your brand, but even louder. But, the brand comes first.

We just updated our work with a recent project, branding a new campaign from Prison Fellowship, an organization that serves prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families across the country.

They recently launched a new campaign in efforts to engage a younger generation called, “Forgive, don’t Forget”. The strategy behind the brand was to aggressively communicate the truth and the need that people in prisons are often dehumanized and forgotten. Prisoners need forgiveness just like anyone else and we should fight the tendency to forget them.

Then taking it one step beyond forgiveness, the campaign offers cool t-shirts, and for every t-shirt purchased, PFM donates a dress shirt and tie to aid prisoners re-entering society and looking for employment.

You can read more about it on our website for go directly to the campaign website.

On Tuesday Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President. Mere seconds after the oath was finished the official White House website was updated with an all new look. One thing is for sure Obama owned the brand of “Change” and is following through so far down to every last detail. It’s awesome to see a president who understands the power and value of design, branding, the internet and new technologies.

I walked into the office the other day and found this…

An hour later, I passed by again and saw this…

I was in the car today with Craig on the way back from a meeting, when a printing company’s truck passed us by. Immediately I noticed the logo on the truck – it involved shapes with the standard 4 colors involved in the 4 color print process: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black.

I won’t mention specific companies here in ATL, but I can say that almost every printer I’ve worked with has a logo based off of this same theme – CMYK. I’ve provided some examples here below, only as illustrations of similar logos (I’ve never worked with any these companies).

Largely, I can say that I’ve received the same results from the companies that seem to follow this similar pattern of branding. One exception to this pattern of branding that I know of is also one of the excellent printers here in town – Standard Press.

I’m not saying that every company that has unique logo is good, or that the reverse would be true either, but it does make me consider the connection.

Do great companies strive hard to differentiate themselves in everything – branding included – to the point that they wouldn’t risk having a visual Identity that even remotely looked the same as their competition?

Is it a coincidence that Standard’s logo is set apart from their competition in addition to the service they provide?

No way…the two things have to come from the same core – a desire to be set apart.

This week the sports experts predicted that the Arizona Cardinals wouldn’t make it to the end of the game with the Mighty Philadelphia Eagles. They had no chance due to their “inexperience” and youth. After watching that game, it was obvious that the reason they won was more than one person or even two. But come on… they wouldn’t have come close without Larry Fitzgerald or Kurt Warner.

I know the rules apply that say that they couldn’t do it without a team. (Good offensive line, and great defense.) But, Arizona’s advantage was their 6′3″ Wide Receiver who will catch anything you throw at him, and the quarterback that can put it right into his hands. That is what made the Cardinals special this year. They are exploiting their competitive advantage, and not just playing the same game as the rest of the teams in the league.

What can you exploit?