We get the privilege of working with several courageous clients, and none more than "The Breast Cancer Diaries", a film about one woman's battle with breast cancer. It is described as:

"A story of love, liberation and laugher. Diagnosed with breast cancer at age 38, young mother and television journalist Ann Murray, turned the camera on herself, setting up a video diary camera in her bedroom. Ann's unvarnished account is punctuated with poignancy, romance, and humor."

Her story is best summed up by the pen she so proudly displays in the film, which says "Cancer Sucks".

After Ann was diagnosed she and her sister in-law, Linda Pattillo (a fellow reporter), decided to make the best out of the situation and film a documentary of Ann's struggle with the hope to give hope to those affected by the disease. The film has received acclaimed reviews and multiple awards within the last five years and continues to grow in popularity. You can view the film trailer here.

This project hits close to home for me (and i'm sure many others out there). In 2003, Cancer struck deeply into my family when we lost my step mom at a very young age. It was a difficult time to bear, and many of those emotions surfaced when I first watched Ann's story. That's what makes her story and the film so great! It connects emotions to the cause.

We are helping develop a parent brand identity with Linda and Ann to support the film and increase corporate sponsorship and donor base so they can provide the proper support, awareness, and outreach the young women affected by breast cancer deserve.

Remarkable things happen when personal stories, filled emotion, flow into the brands we create.

Check out more about The Breast Cancer Diaries here and support their cause!

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Say you spend hours a day on Facebook. Or average double-digit tweets every hour. When you're not texting, you're instant messaging. In the evenings, you update your daily blog and tumblr. What happens after all that is taken care of? After you've twitted all your tweets and Facebooked all your friends? I mean, that stuff was easy — you're a professional after all.

When free time has the audacity to come sneaking up on you, have no fear. There's Daytum. This nifty web site provides endless possibilities to help you track any and every part of your life. What you eat, the music you listen to, the clothes you wear, the places you've traveled. Daytum will digest all the complexities of your existence and spit out gorgeously simple charts and graphs in return.

I'm not kidding, the application is beautiful. It's the brainchild of Nicholas Felton, a brilliant (and supremely dedicated) designer in NYC who has kept track of his daily routine for the past few years and turned it into personal annual reports.

After signing up and using it for the past week, I can say it's super easy to use, and actually kind of fun seeing your life unfold before you in this way. The hard part will be to see how long I can keep it up. I'm far from the professional socialmedialite described above.

Alvin's Daytum

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Last fall I wrote about our approach to designing brand identities and how it is more of a sniper approach than simply shooting a shotgun.

Recently I asked Alvin to help take the concept and think through it more thoroughly.  We had a lot of fun doing it and eventually came away The Matchstic Field Guide to Designing Brand Identity.

You can view the PDF here.  We'd love to hear any thoughts/criticisms.

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Meet Nathan, he's 4. He's also Craig's son, and a wiz on the computer, but he's not really our intern. Starting today though we are looking for one!

Matchstic Internship from matchstic on Vimeo.

I started my career in design as an intern at Sony Music in Nashville, doing packaging and promotion design for their artists. That internship was a game changer. First off, just getting the sought after position for the summer was a huge confidence builder, and secondly I learned a ton studying under a great art director named Rollow Welch. There I learned a craft and a love. I typeset for hours, looked at old, never before seen, Johnny Cash photos, and marveled at my first ever published work. I'm very thankful for that experience.

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This is short entry because I think the subject speaks for itself. I saw a commercial for Sour Patch Kids that I thought was hilarious and so catchy. I know…your saying since when do Sour Patch Kids do commercials. Chalk it up to the economy I suppose. Most everybody's tried a Sour Patch Kid and experienced that sour then sweet taste. We love the taste. It's what makes them unique. Even more so, that they are little characters! Thats the Sour Patch Kids story. This commercial is a great example of reminding people of the story.

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I know Craig mentioned in his post the other day that I've been blogging about the roles of middle managers in my blog – The Squeeze. Here's a recent entry I posted the other day on Signs of Decay:

Chris Carneal over at Booster – both a friend and colleague – sent this to me the other day. Not sure exactly which building, but its from one of the memorials in D.C. The quote reads, "Whenever a People or an Institution forgets its hard beginnings it is beginning to decay".

This sentiment is also very true for the economic climate we find ourselves in today. Companies have failed to remember the dust they started from, have gotten large and seemingly "too big to fail", and deemed themselves invincible. No one is invincible, nor should they be.

Bringing it down to an even more intimate level, this can also be said for those of us in roles as managers. If we think we're insulated, too much depends on us, we're doing our jobs, and so on – we're wrong. The same rule that applies to deeply entrenched companies also applies to deeply entrenched employees right now – its about how excellent and remarkable you are. Companies like Google and Apple are weathering the storm while companies more far removed from their "hard beginnings" are failing (ex: GM).

The application for us as managers is to get back to the roots of when we first started our jobs – the hungry, idea-filled, optimistic start that captured the attention, appreciation, and respect of our co-workers, customers, and boss. Don't let the decay set in.

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Ah, the age old dilema — putting a price on value. How does one translate value into dollar signs?

Microsoft has recently taken on this task with their new "Laptop Hutners" campaign. The premise, take a couple trendy young people in Los Angeles and offer them a deal: If they find the laptop they want within a set budget ($1000-$1500), they get to keep it. The catch? Well, they just have to bash Apple in the process. The moral of each story is, as laptop hunter Giampaolo (or "G", because he's young and hip) put it, "Macs are sexy, but they are more about aesthetics than computer power."

First, let's debunk the myths. While G's statement could have been true many years ago, Macs have long since offered the same computing power as a typical Windows machine (when they switched to Intel archteicture). In another ad, Lauren complains that for about $1000 she could only buy a 13″ Mac when she wanted a 17″ screen. Sure enough, she ends up getting a 17″ HP laptop for less than the smaller Mac. But I have to wonder if she noticed that the resolution is basically the same (so she didn't get much more desktop area) and that she'll need a new bag to fit the almost-twice-as-thick, eight-pound machine.

I'm no self-righteous Apple fanboy. In fact, my personal computer is a three-year-old Sony laptop. I've had extensive experience with both camps, and still successfully use Windows to this day. So it bothers me that Microsoft had to resort to some of the lowest of marketing strategies: (a) trying to be cool instead of being cool, (b) touting competitive advantage as being solely "features" per dollar and (c) making a ridiculous straw man argument (Apple doesn't even want to sell you cheap goods).

Not only does this approach further cement the idea that Windows and PCs are cheap, it severely insults the consumer's intelligence. Given our current economic state, the strategy may work for now. But is it worth it to irreversibly cheapen one's brand in the process? What happens when the economy picks back up and people start spending more on luxuries again?

I'm probably in the minority, but I find a lot of value in the intangibles. I enjoy the driving experience, not just raw horsepower numbers. I appreciate the details, thoughtful engineering (which is tangbile) and things people normally overlook. Things like the Macbook's unibody frame matter more to me than overly-large screens or "features" or gimmicks. It's designful thinking. And there's something to be said for simplicity — I'd rather my computer not look like a cheesy prop from a Scion commercial.

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We're pleased to announce the 3 finalists for On the House!  Starting today through next Wednesday, you can vote for who you'd like to see win at the On the House website.  All three of these are fabulous organizations and each very deserving of the work that all of the partners are providing.




Finalists #1: Myles-A-Part

Myles-A-Part was founded by Katennia Dula, mother of an Autistic child. They are one of few organizations providing direct aid to families facing Autism. Their desire is not to see these families just “make it”. They want to see them thrive. Myles-A-Part is dedicated to showing compassion to Autistic families RIGHT NOW.

Finalist #2: The Swift School

The Swift School is a non-profit private school serving children in grades 1-6 with dyslexia and related language-based learning differences. Armed with the knowledge that dyslexia is not something that is "fixed," Swift School teachers and families overcome challenges by applying proven techniques, such as the Orton-Gillingham Approach, to teach children to read.

Finalist #3: Essential 2 Life

Essential 2 Life exists to see a generation of urban youth move beyond poverty to discover a new direction in their lives. The organization’s mission is to create life-change opportunities for urban youth through mentoring and educational/career opportunity programs. E2L works directly with families in the public housing communities of Atlanta, helping at-risk youth "be more".

Cast your vote now!

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The bar has been raised! Last week we concluded our Top Ten Finalist interviews with five more in-office interviews. They are all GREAT organizations and narrowing to the final 3 will be a real tough decision. Check out the highlight video below and see for yourself! The Final 3 will be announced this Wednesday April 8th, here on the matchstic blog.

On The House Finalists Interviews 6- 10 from matchstic on Vimeo.
The ministries featured in this video are:

#6. AIGA Atlanta: aiga-atl.org
#7. Redeemed Ministries: redeemedlove.org
#8. Ministry Ventures: ministryventures.org
#9. Essential 2 Life: e2lonline.org
#10. Myles Apart: mylesapart.org

To see the first five interviews click here.

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I recently saw an advertisement for IBM about how they are helping to build a smarter world through technology. In the commercial, different employees proudly proclaim "I'm an IBMer". This statement sounds vaguely familiar to other hardware/software developers. Apple says, "Im a Mac" and Microsoft says, "Im a PC". Even Dell (a little behind) gives you a variety of colors to choose from. I believe this is more than a trend. We're being asked to define ourselves by the technology brands we buy. But this is nothing new, we already do it.

I know for me, technology is a part of my everyday life. Whether its a TV, computer, phone or web browser. For each purchase, there were many to choose from and these are my choices. I have found myself touting my choice's greatness, even trying to convert others too them. No doubt the same could be said of my scooter, the TV shows I watch even the crackers I eat. Why are we so loyal to our brands? Why do we want others to know what their missing?

As competition creates choices, good branding helps us make up our minds. We decide which one is for us, and if it keeps its promise, we tell our friends. This makes a good brand valuable. No need to advertise when I will do it for you?

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