Internationally famous graffiti artist, Banksy was in Detroit recently and he did what graffiti artists do. He graffitied. One of his pieces ended up on a small fragment of a wall in the now derelict Packard plant. The image of a small boy with a paint can remembering “when all this was trees” is irony layered on irony with a thick coating of melancholy. It’s simultaneously hopeless and hopeful, acknowledging that change isn’t synonymous with death.
… or rather, it was.
After being tipped off on May 8, the folks at 555 Gallery assembled a recovery team and over a two-day period, they removed the piece and transported it to their gallery. They claim the effort was about preservation and in their defense, any building in this state of decay is likely to be destroyed at any moment. On the other hand, the critics point out that that may well have been Banksy’s intention.
Either way, a public art piece by an important, internationally recognized painter has been removed from the public eye (without permission) and no one quite knows what to do about it.
Local artist Matt Eaton (brother of another internationally renown graffiti artist, Tristan Eaton) summed it up this way on his Facebook posting about the incident:
“… and THAT is why you can’t have nice things, Detroit.”
Fittingly, Detroit’s motto is Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus… or for those whose Latin isn’t quite up to par: “We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes.”
We have a long and well-known history of troubled times, but despite that near-constant hardship, we endure, largely due to the efforts of people like John Hantz, whose Hantz Farm Project is taking steps to repurpose some long-neglected Motown real estate as farmland.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you dirt, make lemons.
As we button up the office for the long Thanksgiving weekend, we’d like to take a moment to wish all of our clients (and the entire Volusion community at large) a safe and happy holiday! 2009 has been a fantastic year for Brand Labs and we owe a great deal of our success to our customers and supporters. The rest of our success comes to us through the tireless efforts and boundless creativity of our staff, for whom we are thankful each and every day.
… and remember, there’s more than one parade going on tomorrow. In the morning, for the 83rd time, thousands of volunteers will don embarrassing costumes and march straight down the center of Detroit on Woodward Avenue in America’s Thanksgiving Parade. Be sure to watch!
… and thanks again!
UPDATE: We failed to mention that our own Courtney Boehm was part of a long-standing Detroit Thanksgiving tradition: watching the Lions get pummeled on national television. Courtney had one of the best seats in the house, for the halftime show, at least. She can (barely) be seen here dancing on the 50 yard line as Vita Chambers sings “Heat Wave” as part of the show’s Motown tribute. While you can’t make out her face, at least she can rest well in the knowledge that she scored almost as many points that day as the Lions did.
We hate to blow our own horn, but we’ll do it if we have to. Luckily, this week, that won’t be necessary. Brand Labs has been featured in the latest issue of Crain’s Detroit Business, in recognition of our entrepreneurial spirit and our ongoing success in the midst of the toughest economic conditions in decades.
Of course, we’re always happy to be mentioned in the media, but we’re a little disappointed that the words “awesome” and “mega-awesome” don’t appear anywhere in the article. We’re sure that this was simply an oversight on their part and we hope to see some sort of correction or retraction in the days to come.
You may read the entire article at CrainsDetroit.com (registration required).
UPDATE: Right now, (as of 10 am on Nov 11) our president, Kevin Harman, is attending Crain’s Salute to Entrepreneurship at U of M’s Dearborn Campus. Drop by and say hi!
There was a time, ’round these parts, that Faygo was, quite simply, summer in a bottle. There wasn’t a picnic anywhere in Detroit that wasn’t well-stocked with Redpop and Rock and Rye. The (more expensive) Coke and Pepsi were for the grownups, but we didn’t care. Why would we want some dull, brown pop (not“soda” here in the mitten state) when we could pull the tab on a fizzy, sugar-saturated tin can of bright red liquid magic? We cherished every bit of the sticky syrup as its sugar coursed through our veins and it stained our lips, hands and clothes, marking us as pink-hued warriors, battling against maturity as the impending school year loomed over the horizon like a hideous beast whose sole purpose was to remind us of the fleeting nature of childhood.
With Labor Day on its way and Summer waning quickly, we offer this love letter to the season of childhood and freedom. Enjoy.
As much as we have no desire to flog a celebrity tragedy for any reason, the fact is that Michael Jackson’s recent passing has affected our entire office in a very specific way. Each time we receive a new contract, the folks in sales play “ABC” by the Jackson 5. It’s a nod to the common sales acronym for “Always Be Closing”, but it’s also simply a joyful song and we’ve gotten used to hearing it pretty regularly. We’ve tried alternates, but nothing else seems to capture the proper mood as effectively as that dynamic and enchanting 11 year old boy singing about young love. We’ll be keeping the tradition even though it may be touched with a bit of sadness for a time. From just north of Motown, we’d like to say thanks, Michael.
Today we celebrated the birthdays of Chris Jackson and Courtney Boehm! There’s still some cake left, so if you happen to be in the Rochester, MI area, stop on by for a piece!
… I do feel compelled to mention that simply standing within three feet of this particular cake is likely to contribute to Adult Onset Diabetes, so proceed at your own risk.
Yesterday, at a nearby sporting goods store, the Detroit Lions unveiled their new logo. While we have been unable to determine the specific cost of the redesign, conventional wisdom and vast internet speculation places the price solidly in the six-figure area. That sort of budget is not at all uncommon when rebranding any major corporation and sports franchises definitely fall into that category.
At this point, we’d like to go on record as offering our full, professional endorsement of the new logo. You could debate the merits of the designer’s specific decisions all day long (as other blogs have already begun to do) but the fact is that the old lions logo was… well… old. Introduced in 1970, the logo had remained largely unchanged for three decades until, in 2003, the blue stroke around the lion gained a little weight and was changed to black (even that change probably cost tens of thousands of dollars). Thirty-nine years is a long time to hope to keep the public’s attention. The updated Lions corporate identity should go a long way in helping to merchandise the famously unsuccessful team. After all, the Lions’ two dozen dedicated fans will now have to buy new jerseys.
So, why in the world would anyone endorse a subtle change that cost in excess of $100,000? Simply because it matters. The old Lions logo had a laundry list of faults. The lion’s shape was poorly defined. The mane had more hard angles than anyone’s hair should (with apologies to mid-80’s Patti LaBelle). The stroke around the lion was inelegant. It was effectively a blue blob with a vaguely lion-ish shape, which was all well and good 40 years ago. The lack of definition suited the primitive printing methods of the time and allowed the logo to be scaled up or down without much fear of loss of quality. The old Lions logo was a workhorse. The new logo is a stallion… a lion stallion… like some sort of blue-colored horse/lion half breed that plays football… we have suddenly realized that the horse metaphor is falling apart and will now abandon it.
The new logo has personality. Specifically, it has an aggressive personality. Fangs have been added. The pose has been refined to suggest a more active attack. The mane has been given a more believable feeling of motion. All of that matters. If you were the unfortunate owner of the Detroit Lions and were presented with the two choices at the top of this post, which do you believe you would choose to mislead people into believing that your team had even the slimmest chance of ever winning a game? The new logo would clearly win that competition, marking the first time in recent memory that a Lion has won anything.
So, again, why does any of this matter? Well, it matters to us because, among other things, we design logos. We look at logos. We think about logos. Some may even say we obsess about logos, but we do so for a reason. Your logo says a lot about your brand. As a matter of fact, most logos are regularly called upon to say everything about the brand. Here’s a quick test: picture your company’s logo on a t-shirt, with nothing else. What would people learn about your company from that t-shirt? If you think that the public could easily glean an understanding of what you do from seeing that shirt, you have a well designed logo and should consider yourself fortunate. If not, you may want to follow the Detroit Lions’ example and engage in a bit of rebranding.
… and if you hire us to do it, we can save you at least $99,000.
Fittingly, Detroit’s motto is Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus… or for those whose Latin isn’t quite up to par: “We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes.”
As we button up the office for the long Thanksgiving weekend, we’d like to take a moment to wish all of our clients (and the entire Volusion community at large) a safe and happy holiday! 2009 has been a fantastic year for Brand Labs and we owe a great deal of our success to our customers and supporters. The rest of our success comes to us through the tireless efforts and boundless creativity of our staff, for whom we are thankful each and every day.
We hate to blow our own horn, but we’ll do it if we have to. Luckily, this week, that won’t be necessary. Brand Labs has been featured in the latest issue of Crain’s Detroit Business, in recognition of our entrepreneurial spirit and our ongoing success in the midst of the toughest economic conditions in decades.
