true but made up

The First Time She Fell – launch links

2011-12-28T20:27:00.003-05:00

In a 21st century publishing experiment, the book is launching on Facebook.

Click through to Facebook to meet the writer and designers, see a preview, and more.

But we love non-Facebookers, too. So click on the links below:

for a free sample chapter: What Marinela Didn't Say
order a print version of the book, using PayPal
order an e-Book version, using PayPal to start reading right away.
And since you can't post on a wall, shoot us an email with any questions!

The First Time She Fell

2011-12-08T15:15:00.001-05:00

Coming in late December:

The First Time She Fell

8 short stories in the visual and verbal

See more here: 26tools.com/thefirsttimeshefell

In town and out (in search of Mia).

2011-10-09T18:52:00.004-04:00

As Kris said in a previous post, these past three days have been a great reminder of how fragile the whole process is. It’s been frustrating, all the green lights and red lights and shifts. But at the same time, it’s kind of like parenting. Feeling our way forward with each child, in their own way, always not quite sure that we’re doing what’s right (although there’s always plenty of advice out there about how to resolve any challenge!)

But relationships aren’t meant to be resolved, they’re meant to be shared. And we’re sharing this with Mia right now, even if she doesn’t know it – experiencing a little bit of the holding pattern and uncertainty that have marked her life. The rug always being pulled out from under her feet. Right now we’re just sharing that, from two different locations, a few miles apart.

So yesterday we walked, walked, walked around the city more. It was incredibly crowded, always smoggy and noisy with scooters and buses and construction. But it’s also strangely peaceful. It’s hard to say why; maybe it’s because all of the noise is functional noise – people going from one place to another. Nobody is piping out music from cars or programmed spaces, until you get over to the posh shopping areas. Same thing visually – there’s no lack of activity, no lack of decoration and beautiful architecture, amazing variation. But other than storefronts and an occasional poster on construction sites, there isn’t a lot that is designed to catch your eye, direct you to a website or phone number to sell you something. Maybe it’s the sense that when you stand at any given spot in the city, very little of life around you is designed, or directed to push or pull you. A sense that things are happening, rather than being overorchestrated. I’m stretching here, trying to find points of contact and ways into understanding! but that seems important to do. I’ll post pictures later, when I can get to the camera.

Last night we all hopped into a cab and drove away from the touristy section of the city, in the direction of Shanghai. We wanted to get out into the outlying areas, just a little bit, but in a city with a population that’s twice as big as Chicago it’s not easy! And the biggest thing that we couldn’t get away from was that there are so many people. At every corner thirty or forty scooters and bikes brake to a stop; in every street and along every highway people are walking, biking, headed somewhere. Storefront restaurants, shops, auto repair bays, everywhere. We’ve seen literally more than 100 apartment buildings being built, each with hundreds of units, staggered in rows of five or six.

Mercedes and VW dealerships one street over from really rough areas; universities and research centers bordered by one-lot home-farms, with chickens and open air cooking and men wearing yokes walking out in the street. In the shadow of twenty brown apartment towers, each twenty stories tall, little hospital clinics and bright blue and yellow school playgrounds.

There was a moment in the cab when I turned around and looked at Ada, and saw an expression on her face that I’ve never seen before. She looked so old, so serious, taking it all in; she didn’t want to talk about anything (which is very unlike her!) just to watch and listen. And as we went to bed last night Evelyn came over and nestled up between us and started crying. We asked her why, and she said that she’s happy that Mia Pinyi is coming to live with us. I asked her if she felt safe, and she said yes, that she really was just happy.

It’s three in the morning, six hours until we meet Mia. I can’t sleep, and I don’t want to.

More Hangzhou.

2011-10-09T18:43:00.003-04:00

A crazy few days, and lovely. Since arriving in China we’ve been really conscious of how great a privilege it is to know what city Mia is from, because she’s not just from China, she’s from Hangzhou. That doesn’t narrow it down a lot – as Krista points out, she’s one in 7 million! But it’s a starting point for us.

So from the time we arrived we wanted to get to know the city a little bit. Not only its famous beauty, which centers on West Lake and walkways and parks surrounding, but to dive in a bit away from the touristy area, where Niketown and Prada and Starbucks edge in on the peace of the park. That’s the city center, and for good reason! But we wanted to try to find its heart. So we went off without our guide, and really tried to start at street level, in the back alleys that start, truly, only a few streets over from a Pizza Hut. Where people hand wash their day’s clothes and hang them out of windows, or hack up fish and vegetables in the open to sell in stall storefronts; at bus stations where crowds of men gamble on cardboard just like in every city in the world; in the night market (where among thousands of people we were the only white faces we saw).

We saw way too much to write about here – and some insights that we’d talked about later with our guide. Some reminders of the beautiful culture, what it’s like to be a young person in Hangzhou. One of my favorite moments was at the edge of West Lake, where two very old men were writing out a passage of poetry on the sidewalk with an eight-foot brush and a bucket, using water from the lake. By the time they’d finished writing the perfect calligraphy, of course, the beginning of the poem was evaporating; as they were working I saw a group of chatting teens, as punk as I’ve seen here, walk straight across it – until they realized what they were doing, stopped and jumped off, then waited as a group to read it, while the old men just kept writing. Generational care is everywhere – old women riding on scooters with five year old grandkids between their knees. Everywhere people stop to smile at and touch our kids. At the Lake, they stopped us to have their pictures made with the girls. In the back alleys, they just wanted to stop us, touch the girls’ faces, their hair. Savor told us, over and over, about families who live together, caring for children and the old.

We’re taking a daughter of this city, home to be ours. And from what we understand, they agree, they want her to go with us, because as an orphan she doesn’t have a network of generations or siblings to plug into. It’s such a responsibility, such a privilege.

A story of two women (one man's p.o.v.)

2011-10-04T21:38:00.037-04:00

In many ways, our adoption blog tells the story of two women, and the day they'll meet for the first time. It's an unexpected history that starts (literally) on opposite sides of the world and comes to a head in just a few days.

The first is my wife; the second is my daughter. Adopting was Krista's idea – and she heard it from God. I know, it sounds kooky, and when she first brought it up, we had the kind of candid, transparent, awkward and engaging conversation that we both love. And we both believe it's something we're doing because we're "supposed to", as well as because we want to.

But I have to say that I didn't see it coming. Krista grew up around adoption, with a mother who has been a case worker at an adoption agency for 25 years. Adoption was not on my radar – except for when I wanted to come across as a sensitive, worldly-wise, kissable guy.

In fact, to be candid, we were both so super happy with our two glorious daughters that we decided a few years ago that were done having kids. Surgically done. So when Krista brought it up – it was so unexpected, and she so clearly felt it so deeply, that there was nothing to do but jump on board.

From day one, it's been an idea that's taken root in me. What if justice can have a face, in our family? And mercy too? What if, when God talks about caring for widows and orphans, it's not a metaphor but a command? How far and deep can we share the love that we four Ludwicks feel as a family, with someone else?

It's been a long and challenging process. I understand the need to screen out potential abusers, so I affirm the system – but in our situation it's been further complicated because we lived overseas for graduate school, etc. Here's a snapshot of how long it's taken: when we started, I thought that it would be good to engage with the process, and be mindfully aware, so I decided to take a "Lent" from any alcohol until we got our child. It'll be fun to toast her when she arrives, I said, and it'll only take a few months, right? Well, it's been more than two years.

There have also been serious, decidedly unfun, challenges too. Health issues, grim car wrecks that left tire tracks from a semi on the hood of our car, red tape runarounds that have caused real struggles, and more – always coming at key moments in our adoption process, so that they seemed pointed, and designed to discourage us.

But throughout it all, it's been amazing to watch Krista work to move us forward. Mind-numbing paperwork, unbelievable hurdles to jump, orchestrating a million details so it all came together – even dreaming crazy and wonderful dreams that, if we didn't live in the South, I might even call visions! And always pushing up against the belly of God, asking, almost demanding that he prove himself faithful.

Then there is the other woman – Mathilda Pinyi – born small in a big city, 180 degrees of separation around the world from Chattanooga. To save her life, her mom or dad bravely risked arrest to sneak her into a middle-school corridor, where they knew she would be safe and found. She has lived in foster care and an orphanage, she's lived through a horrible burn accident that left her in the hospital for three months. She's still standing, and is about to set out on an adventure that she doesn't understand. Our third wee queen. She learned to be a mighty warrior before she was 18 months old, because she had to.

There are, of course, two other women in this story. Our great daughters Ada and Evelyn, who are ready to bring the mystery and magic of sisterly love to Mia Pinyi, who can't wait to graft her into the family. Were two, are three; were four, are five.

I have a tattoo on my right arm, of a Joan of Arc cross. As with any good tattoo, it tells more than it seems to – this one references the orthodox cross that my father used to wear, when I was a kid. But it also reminds me of my graduate studies in Orlêans, France, under the shadow of Jeanne's statue, and of the possibilities that strong, faithful women bring to the world. And some areas of France, this cross has special significance – it was a symbol of the French Resistance, scrawled on doorways of homes that were safe houses for people being chased by Fascist armies. As Jeanne said: "Act, and God will act."

It's on my right arm because, to me, it's a symbol of what I was born to do: provide strength and a safe place for strong daughters. I spent years missing the boat on this, doing more harm than good in my relationships, but for the past decade this has become my job and my joy. So I'm in, along for the ride, ready to help create a space where four strong women can come together, grow together.

Pin-Yi Ludwick (that's right, LUDWICK)

2011-05-29T18:09:00.012-04:00

For the past three years, our family has strongly believed that we can make room in our home for another daughter, to share life with her. And after running into roadblock after roadblock with domestic adoption, we shifted further afield and learned about the overwhelming needs in China.

Last month, more than 1,500 special needs children – most of them girls – were available for adoption by the People’s Republic. The needs of these Chinese children, and those many other places in the world, is tremendous, and it’s all preventable. But in the face of a world that isn’t doing what is right, or enough, we aren’t helpless or paralyzed.

As we worked in the face of this wrong, something wonderful happened. It’s still about justice, and mercy, and helping for us. But now it all has a face. Last month, the special needs list included a girl named Shao Pin-Yi, who was matched with our family!

Little Pin-Yi was born in November 2009 (day unknown). Her mother, in a tremendous act of bravery and love, snuck her into the corridor of a middle school, where she knew Pin-Yi would be found. She was registered in the care of the Children’s Welfare Institute of Hangzhou that same day – so underweight that she was classified as a special needs child, weighing just five pounds clothed. At around 8 months, she was still so small that the orphanage assigned her to a foster family.

Since then she has grown stronger – but she is still tiny. At 18 months, she weighs only 18 pounds (the size of a typical eight month old in the US). However, her size is not holding her back! The caretakers in the orphanage described how, when they had time to interact with her, they always found her eager “to search the world.” And her foster family describes a girl who is active and independent.

As you can tell – we’re finding ourselves proud parents again! Because while she might be known as file #1301551125696 in China, to us she’s already a Ludwick.
Caleb + Krista + Ada + Evelyn

PS "I'm finally gonna be a big sister" - Evelyn.

In May, a reversal –

2011-05-03T08:31:00.010-04:00

As someone who believes Kierkegaard had at least as much to teach about lit as about life, I'm a big fan of the reversal and the return.

My verbal/ visual book project has become in some ways about creatives leaving Chattanooga. Now that all but two of the designers collaborating have left (one of them a college student we'd love to keep here if possible) – it sometimes feels like a book about 'diaspora', maybe even 'outgrowing', definitely about 'moving on'.
And then my family learns that after three years of working and waiting, we've got a third daughter. Shao Pin-Yi is seventeen months old and in Hangzhou City, China, where she will live for a few more months. But she's set to become a Ludwick.
We're thrilled. As my wise and lovely missus put it – she's healthy, she's a mystery, she's ours. Got a song stuck in my head: Psalm 40 from the Old Testament. A wild picture of fatherhood, and of bringing someone home.

As I'm rounding out the book, this feels operative. There's a person halfway around the world – 180 degrees of separation. Bringing her here to Chattanooga to live and grow: new roots, a new voice.

April

2011-05-03T08:19:00.008-04:00

April was given to rereading my favorite passages of East Coker, then writing a story about being a child but also a father, how justice and love overlap between parents and children, even between strangers
+ to reviewing designs already received. Some sneak peeks:

And here's a little April Basho treat:

under my tree-roof
slanting lines of april rain
separate to drops

Slip inside the eye of your mind (...a better place to play?)

2011-03-14T12:50:00.045-04:00

Last week, I found myself in Orlando with two of the designers on my grant-funded fiction+design project, and realized that I'm the only one getting to enjoy the experience of collaborating with each designer.

I can't wait to show each one the others' work – but not until the whole shebang is complete, so each designer is interacting with the text solo (so far, so great).

At the same time, I was struck that one of the designers is now a Philadelphian, and the other is a Birminghamian.

With Nick DuPey's impending departure for Boston and a shiny new desk at IDEO, this project has come to feel like a short history of diaspora! One year into the project, only two of the designers working on the book are remaining in Chattanooga, and one of these is a college student, who might well leave upon graduating.

I find this to be a fascinating element, with lots of dialogue fodder back here in Chattanooga… but I can't help think that for each of the designers, working on their chapter of the book might feel a bit like a look backward. And oh! the irony – perhaps even a closed chapter.

In my opinion, nostalgia is only moderately inspiring. So instead of looking backward, imma look around. Because the simple fact is that this is an amazing group of cocollaborators.

We all sprang from the loins of the Scenic C, so we all know each other. But for the sake of each cocollaborator and of those of you following the MakeWork project progress, I thought I'd give a collective update on where each person is today.

(please allow me to introduce yourselves)

Nick DuPey is YoungMonster, and is about to become a communications designer at IDEO.
See some work here. 
His story is:Thin King Blues  

Ben Horner is Creative Director at Papercut Interactive.
See some work here.
His story is: Patete

Roby Isaac is Creative Manager of Commercial Hard Surfaces at Mannington Commercial.
See some work here.
His story is: Ich Habe Genug

Michael Hendrix is Location Director at IDEO Boston.
See some work here. 
His story is: Marinela

Beth Joseph is a student at UTC!
See some work here.
Her story is: Too

Mandy Meredith is Design Director at Scout Branding.
See some work here.
Her story is: Run Softly

Joseph Shipp is a freelance designer, with clients including IDEO, 826 Valencia, C2 Group and Project M.
See some work here.
His story is: Swim

Liz Tapp is Principal at her own design firm, as well as editor, publisher and designer of Mule Magazine.
See some work here.
Her story is: Underlay

Book arts: Paul Rustand
Writing: this old thing

Rebranding a Legacy

2011-02-05T09:43:00.039-05:00

It is a great joy to work with companies that truly value the voice of their customers. When I was invited to help Propex craft new positioning statements for their business units, I sat down with an in-house team that brings deep understanding not only of their products, design and SEO marketing – but also what their customers need and want.

Our first priority was Concrete Solutions, the division that manufactures and markets synthetic fibers for concrete reinforcement. Building better concrete and a stronger concrete industry by reducing costs and exponentially improving concrete's strength and performance over time.

What they had learned led us immediately to table their current messaging of "making good concrete better", because it did not specify product advantages (over commodity additives to concrete), or take advantage of the equity of a 25 year old brand. At the same time, we didn’t need rebranding just for the sake of creativity – change for change’s sake.

Over previous six months, Propex’s new marketing team had been listening hard to their customers. They ran the industry’s first-ever customer survey (with a staggering 26% response rate from a customer base eager to be heard!), established a producer’s council, and took every opportunity to listen.

In fact, our first decision was to recapture this equity! Fibermesh is a heritage brand – and created the category of synthetic fibers (the term is used by ready mix distributors and contractors like "Kleenex" or "Xerox"). We chose to focus the entire business unit's external messaging on pr

oducts, and use Fibermesh as the cornerstone.

We developed a brief that would ask a branding agency, first and foremost, to communicate:

+ Propex created a product category and in industry, and set a standa rd. And we're still innovating and setting standards.

+ We are THE fiber experts, with a laser focus on fiber and advising the industry on optimizing concrete through fiber use.

+ Fiber is not a commodity. Use of Propex fibers benefit performance and open opportunities for revenue.

Design direction:

+ Build messaging around "True Fibermesh" as opposed to inferior knock-off products.

+ Visual organization should demonstrate that we bring a family of fiber products –

microsynthetic, macrosynthetic, steels and blends – for any application.

With these results and impact:

+ Key customers see both the value and the importance of fibers.

+ Build awareness and acceptance fiber use.

+ Emphasize: Want to create more value and reduce liability? It'd better be True Fibermesh.

To translate this messaging visually and create marketing tools, I brought in Scout Brand of Birmingham. I know Scout through the talents of Mandy Lamb Meredith, Scout's design director who is

formerly of Chattanooga's Widgets & Stone. It has been a bit more than a year since I first introduced Scout to another client, Mannington Commercial, and they have done fantastic work. So I had every confidence in their abilities to deliver on this direction.

And deliver they did! Scout's visual articulation of Fibermesh, logo family of the full suite of products and development of the messaging is spot on for positioning and stands out in the industry. After presenting to sales teams, we unveiled the rebranding at World of Concrete in Las Vegas.

"I wanted to express my sincere gratitude for your efforts in making the World of Concrete show and the exciting new roll out of our re-branding campaign of Fibermesh a great success... thank you for all your effort in bringing back the Fibermesh brand. The campaign was extremely well received throughout the show. In an industry that is resistant to change, we have captured a piece of history with the re-establishment of our heritage brand.

- Jonathan Speaks, Director of Sales, Propex Concrete Solutions

So far, so great. Now, onward and upward – long live true Fibermesh!

No more no = yes

2011-01-28T15:36:00.081-05:00

Sustainable design company Tricycle works with product manufacturers in the interiors industry – a market particularly hard hit in this economy, where construction has ground to a halt. After two years of bunkering and cutting costs, manufacturers are tired of tightened belts, and are looking for both innovation and inspiration.

To put it bluntly, they’re tired of feeling stuck. After all, as market leaders they know that they won’t cut their way to prosperity. They’re ready to loosen belts, spend a little, shake a little blood back into their limbs. Any move they make has to be smart, supported by good reasons. But there is real desire to get out of the stuffy, claustrophobic corner. To feel a little wind in their faces.

Tricycle brings three things to this table:
- A suite of digital design innovations that reduce costs and waste
- A focus on driving client sales (in a time when sales are a sore spot)
- And a brand legacy of design-based optimism.

This third factor is key, of course, because the brand has been positioned beautifully to occupy the space between customers and their experience of products, services, word of mouth, PR – everything.

The Small Business Administration, along with local investors in Tricycle, asked me to create a campaign that would remind the industry of these truths. So I enlisted the übercreative and business-savvy Nick DuPey of YoungMonster to work with me + art direct/design the project – and we developed a campaign that launched along with the turn of 2011.

We first decided that – despite the need for brand building – just a campaign was not enough. Five years ago Tricycle ran a brand-building campaign in a book that I edited and cowrote with ten design leaders, with all those Word docs turned into an amazing and beautiful book by a team of four designers (including Nick). In the years since, Tricycle has smartly shifted to a product brand focus. So we wanted to tie the campaign to a gentle push toward Tricycle tools.

At the same time, mission #1 was to speak into the collective “ugh”, to a willing audience. So we decided to use an anachronism – postcards. Once the message medium of choice among friends.

Think of a postcard as a physical "LIKE button”. The like button on Facebook serves two purposes for its users: 1) it becomes part of their identity and 2) shares information with people they care about.

These postcards do the same, but in a unique and satisfyingly tangible way for an est.$12 billion industry with relatively few players – and that is still often used to old school tools. By making it easy for people to mail them –messaging already created and worth sharing, prestamped, and most importantly with amazing design – each postcard works like a like button, but with the satisfaction of a physical artifact.

Share with a friend: "Dear ____, I wanted to drop a note in the mail, to thank you. As we waved goodbye to 2010, there were nasty rumors that the world is stuck in an economy of can't. Trapped by won't. I believe we can do better than that. After all, we've seen good years before – even when budgets and belts were tight. While it's not enough to engage in blind recession rejection, there is power in saying "no more no." Because when we do, we're suddenly saying "yes." And with two voices, it's twice as loud. So as we say hello to 2011, thanks for being part of my yes. Share your yes at nomoreno.tryk.us."

Send to a hero: "Dear ____, We have never met – but I wanted to drop a note in the mail, to thank you. In a time too often characterized by can't – when it's easy to get trapped in won't – you've inspired me. And since inspiration can quickly and easily run dry, what you've done is no small thing. You remind me that I can do better. And that even when it seems impossible, it's not too late. Because of your example, I'm saying "no more no." Thank you for being a secret weapon of my "yes." Share your yes at nomoreno.tryk.us."

And to an antihero: "Dear ____, As much as I hate to say it, your product/service is defunct. As a consumer, I object specifically to ___________. But I want to like you – otherwise I wouldn't bother writing! I want to use your product and talk about you to my friends. I'm not asking for raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. I just believe that in this day and age, we can do better. So please stop. Please defunk your product/service. Please say yes – and share your yes at nomoreno.tryk.us"

And, of course, also with Tricycle: "Nine years ago, four design activists on two continents decided to make interiors product sampling simpler, faster, more creative, less expensive and less wasteful. And we did – creating digital tools from Tricycle, Inc that forever changed the interiors industry. As 2011 begins, some say the world is stuck in an economy of can't. Trapped by won't. It's easy enough to say there's a better way – but we know big change is possible, even when budgets and belts are tight. Because we've done it before. And because we've found that when you say "no more no," you're suddenly saying "yes." What's your yes? Fill in the blank on this postcard. Drop it in the mail. We're going to use them to cover the fridge, the wall, the world. Then share your yes at nomoreno.tryk.us."

An initial round of the postcards were produced as a short run, sent to key customers and potential customers. It was first distributed at Surfaces Expo, an industry trade show particularly experiencing the economy's rude pinch.

We also reformatted postcards 1 and 2 to be printed on demand and inserted with each shipment of sustainable, recyclable paper product samples that goes out from Tricycle into the architect and interior design communities. Speaking in the voice that made Tricycle famous among product manufacturers in the first place.

Then – to spark, spur and aggregate feedback, we decided to use existing tools, rather than spend creating new ones. So, working with Tubatomic Studios, we set up a URL – nomoreno.tryk.us – and reformatted Tricycle's Facebook page with a banner as profile picture, opening up comments for designers to share their yes.

Thanks to Mr Amazing DuPey of YoungMonster, the tech gurus at Tubatomic and of course Tricycle – a great collaboration.

PR + BRAND

2011-01-22T13:53:00.015-05:00

We all know that PR has dramatically changed in the past decade. For me, public relations in the classic sense never held a great deal of interest – I'm much more curious about how word of mouth can be encouraged around news that is true, transparent and relevant.

When I find great (and often brave) clients who like this approach, I enjoy helping integrate marketing, advertising, and branding with public relations. Coverage includes local press, Fortune Small Business, Business Week, the Financial Times (London), Good, Inc., Interior Design, Metropolis and others.

Last fall, Carly Rullman of Scout Brand interviewed me on how, in today’s communications, PR and brand both hinge on relevance and integration, and how good news is good business.

SB = Scout Brand’s Carly Rullman, Account Coordinator and former editor of Platform Online Magazine.CL = Caleb Ludwick of 26 Tools llc

SB: In your opinion, what is a brand?

CL: Brand = reputation. The harder question is how is a brand communicated, managed, and shaped? That is about visual and verbal articulation of a company's values, personality and promise in a way that lines up with an audience's values, personality and anticipation.

Then the magic happens in the space between - just like when I'm talking to you, something magical happens between my mouth and your ear so that understanding takes place.

That's part of why I talk much less about brand these days, than about communication design, or aesthetic, or verbal and visual articulation.

SB: In your opinion, how do PR and branding overlap?

CL: They're part and parcel. The old days of PR as media releases, events, campaigns as the sole focus? Dead. Although actually, it's the same as it always was, just without the black curtain of pretending that something genius was happening up in the PR offices – it's always been about sharing news and making it simple for others to share it too.

In today's message-saturated landscape, good news gets lost in the shuffle. I like helping spread good news - and helping people figure out how to spread it in their own words, better than they could have said it on their own.

Even though it's hard to measure it's bottom-line value, PR can serve real business objectives. For Mannington Commercial [a shared client], my goals are for PR to elevate brand awareness and perception, drive traffic to the website, and open doors for sales. News well told is good business.

In one sense these are brand-centric answers, rather than straight PR answers, but that's because 3/4 of my time is spent on bigger picture communications development and strategy. But it's also because this is how communication works, these days. Brand is just a corporate reputation. PR helps articulate and then communicate corporate reputation, building trust.

SB: How can someone with a PR background benefit an advertising agency?

CL: That's a great question! A lot of designers and even writers approach brand from their own discipline, rather than from the customer's perspective. Of course, many PR professionals do the same thing (tsk, tsk).

But PR people are supposed to take cues from the market first, discipline second. Designers start with their eyes open, to observe. PR people close their mouths, to listen to what's being said to or about you. Then you can help interpret the customer for the designers and writers.

SB: Why is it important for a branding agency to support a non-profit?

CL: A million reasons. Tons of nonprofits need help but often can't afford good advice. We should find time to give them our best.

And since doing good work is a good thing, in and of itself. If we have good ideas, we should share them – don't be proprietary about process, or advice, or ideas. [Give them away, or even] let people steal them and claim them as their own. Then come up with new and better ones.

But there's a whole other level, which is that pro bono work is an incredible opportunity to develop core competencies. Want to get better at PR, or writing white papers, or designing web sites, etc? Offer free work to a nonprofit - and then do it really well. What you deliver to the nonprofit becomes part of your portfolio. For more on this idea, see this short article.

SB: How is social media a form of PR? Or how can it be?

CL: My friend Lacie Newton, who is over media relations for EPB, our local municipally owned electric utility, and is a great thinker on new media and PR, likes to say that perspectives of ‘people like myself" are obviously big influencers today. With new media, PR professionals need to focus on 1) listening followed by 2) engagement.

I agree with her completely. A business client who is also a PhD recently told me, half-complaining, that social media users have more respect for a blogger than for a Nobel Laureate. He’s right, actually – but perhaps not quite how he meant. It’s because value has to do as much with content as it does with context. It's a radical questioning of the relevance of knowledge. Both a blogger and a Nobel winner – or a Facebook post and a PhD – are simply platforms. Neither carries absolute authority, on its own.

Rather I'd start with two major tests for social media:

1. Is it true? Which means not only authentic (as opposed to seeded or fake), but transparent and delivered with consistent and concise messaging.

2. Is it relevant? Is what this person is saying relevant to my life, and my story? This isn’t exclusively a “young audience” idea. It’s a variation on a theme that we’ve heard throughout history. Relevance is foundational to “relational” and “service”.

So it’s about understanding what people want, then helping create experiences that spark inspiration and bring them to help others in broad, deep and well-informed ways.

E.g. if your audience value collaboration and inspiration, the desire to be heard and acknowledged, thenonce trust is established audiences will share ideas, inspiration and feedback for project development and market testing.

SB: How would you explain that the Mannington Commercial tx: style site is a form of PR?

CL: It's all about word of mouth.

SB: What are your thoughts on good advertising leading to PR?

CL: They open doors for each other! And both open doors for sales conversations.

SB: What advice might you give a student looking for a job with a degree in PR? Should they limit themselves to only PR positions and firms?

CL: You're asking a leading question, so I'll give you what you want – NO.

I mean it, though. There will be less and less place in the world for anyone related to communications that does "only" any one thing. The job of each role is to use a broad skill set based around her craft, along with interdisciplinary teams, to connect business with creativity. The outcome should be an integrated platform of tools and strategies that benefit good growth, communication, and positioning. It's about an integrated, cross-media platform of verbal and visual articulation.

2010

All over the place + arts "or" crafts

2011-01-13T09:03:00.005-05:00

This month: trips to Atlanta, Las Vegas (World of Concrete!), Nashville, New York, Boston.

Mindful, aware that every traveling shapes a story of home. Boston will be fun – meeting with Michael Hendrix to talk about what Marinela might have said.

Also this month, am back at Calvin Donaldson working with 4th and 5th grade needing-the-most-growth writers to prep for their state testing. And then, once the test is over, we're launching Calvin Donaldson's first literary magazine. Every Friday after leaving, in the parking lot, imagining six lives of a 9 year old boy nicknamed Patete.

Meanwhile, am setting myself something to think about on the flights, write it out and exorcise it because I don't want it creeping into the fiction: do we need an arts or crafts movement, perhaps particularly in Chattanooga? Where do the two intersect, separate? How to nurture each? How can we craft up the arts, and maybe art up (or down?) crafts? At the least it would be good to talk through what each means, means for us.

Ich Habe Genug (Cantata 82)

2010-12-31T08:08:00.011-05:00

Four stories are complete and with their designers. I'm behind where I wanted to be as we turn to 2011, and one of the main reasons is Cantata 82 – one of the longer and more challenging stories I've written.

At one point I had thought (a bit stupidly) to write this collection about a new manufacturing town of the old South without directly writing about the church. Of course this is not possible, any more than it is possible to write a whole picture of life in all of its mess and glory without directly writing about faith. Cantata 82, named after Bach's Ich Habe Genug piece, is both. And it's hard as hell to write well.

Had lunch today with the designer I'm hoping will take it on and talked about life, industrial design, communication, family and faith without ever touching the story. So far, the most satisfying collaboration. And I haven't even finished the blasted text yet! Sometimes it takes a deadline, so am planning to send it to him by Jan 12.

The newest player on the team: Mandy Meredith

2010-12-31T08:02:00.010-05:00

Leslie Jensen-Inman, one of the designers working with me on this project, has added pursuit of a doctorate to her already full plate. I'm honored to sit on her doctoral advisory committee, and during our first meeting it became abundantly clear that participating in the project should sit below her studies and teaching load. So we're finding other ways to collaborate this Spring (more to come…)

But I'm happy to report an alternate: Mandy Lamb Meredith.

I hadn't worked closely with Mandy until a bit over a year ago – I knew her as a former intern with Widgets & Stone, who is now with Scout Branding in Birmingham.

But in the past months we've worked on a number of projects and I've found only greater depths of admiration and appreciation for her work. It's been my great pleasure to introduce her to two of my largest clients, and have them benefit over and over again from Scout's design work.

But I have to admit that I'm even happier that she's on board with the MakeWork project. She's a great collaborator: supertalented and delightfully humble, who listens as well as she communicates. Here are few pieces from her portfolio that first caught my eye – click through to her site to see even more.

the Idea Factor(y)

2010-11-27T10:56:00.009-05:00

When Widgets & Stone was asked to generate creative concepts for Scripps Networks (HGTV, Travel Channel, Food Network, etc), I was asked to write a concept development brief to help guide creative development.

Then I watched in wonder, as they created amazing ideas for Scripps in-house teams to use, to inspire investors and advertisers in 2011.

In-house creative teams sometimes want outside help in generating new concepts. Whether it is because they get stuck or get too busy with other projects – when they do, they often call us. We have helped rebrand a branding agency. We have helped marketing teams at businesses and nonprofits jump-start their own creative process. Two years ago, we helped the industry-leading creative team at Scripps Networks come up with a new family of logos for Scripps Networks – a parent brand that houses HGTV, Food Network, DIY, Fine Living, Cooking Channel, Great American Country, Shopzilla and BizRate. For years the company did not have its own "umbrella" brand; when they chose to create one, they used Widgets to help generate over 150 design concepts.

And this year, they called us back to work on concept designs for Scripps Networks brand “look and feel” for 2011. The team's domain is off-air design, particularly for interactive and for inspiring investors, but they help inspire on-air design as well.

Widgets designs with authority. Read the whole story and see more lovely comps here.

Leavings

2010-11-08T18:53:00.009-05:00

Yet another of the designers on my project is leaving Chattanooga. Roby Isaac, an old friend and superstar textile designer, has taken a position with Mannington Commercial and is moving to New Jersey.

Supersad to see him leave, but also am delighted bc Mannington is one of my clients. I even helped connect the dots for him to interview, because it means I will have the pleasure of helping promote his work at the NeoCon World's Trade Fair in Chicago. And it's always great to promote great design (just as it was my huge pleasure to introduce Mannington to Scout).

There are whispers of hints of speculations of rumors of others departing, too. It's heavy, honestly, because these are people I not only respect but also really hold dear.

But it's great for them, and actually also a fascinating turn for the book. I even think it's indicative. Am wondering what to expect when the first ArtsMove grants begin to expire, soon on the calendar.

I've long believed that Chattanooga should promote itself as a great place to cut your teeth in creative professions: come here when you're young in your career and get fantastic experience, use it as a springboard (that name is not an accident) to other positions in other cities. If we marketed ourselves that way, we would keep close ties with those designers, writers, etc who "graduate" – heck, they could even send newbies with new thinking our way. Keep ideas fresh, always evolving here; and build a chorus of champions who've gone on to big markets.

This idea – promoting us as a resource, rather than a market – has been very unpopular with some folks. But I think it could be a good thing if we'd own it.

And heck, some would come back – especially those with family here. My missus and I have left for stints away twice (St. Louis and England/France), and came back.

So... remembering leaving: took one of the stories that I'd been working on, Underlay, and tore it down to the studs. Am rewriting it about leaving, and staying. – 01October10

Tiny cabin, happy Caleb

2010-09-22T17:40:00.010-04:00

Just back from 3 days in an Alabama state park's wee cabin, a couple of miles from where we used to jump off the waterfall.

2 stories complete; 1 more nearly there - for the
MakeWork grant project.

Thank ye, Civilian Conservation Corps...

Five Cent Nickel

2010-09-03T23:26:00.031-04:00

Last night we were at the Choo Choo, hanging out in the hot tub with a Horner and some Hendrixes, two of whom are designers on my MakeWork project. If you haven't ever been to the pool at Building #3, then pop by. The odd hacienda/Japanese architecture and big plaster waterfall somehow feel a world away from Chattanooga. But it's right there, right here.

In this strange but wonderful setting, I was thinking about a common thread to conversations I've been having in the past few weeks - "placeness." It's been coming up with a wide variety of groups - one is a city planning team that includes former elected officials and current thinkers. Another is a nonprofit that works with Chattanooga's disadvantaged communities to set up IDAs. Even with a local food project, on how placeness makes flavor/ terroir.

At one point in the evening, the conversation turned to the impact that place has on perspective. Fascinating especially because both of the designers in the conversation were raised in outlying Chattanooga communities - although one lived abroad and moved back; the other travels extensively, headquartered in Boston. I've been in Chattanooga since 1990, with breaks for graduate work in St Louis, England and France.

We talked about how living in new places forces you to approach life, challenges, opportunities from new cultural angles. But for this to happen, you have to live there (not just visit). What this cultivates is much deeper than a matter of "gaining a global perspective" (in part because there's no such thing).

In fact, maybe perspective is the wrong word, because mere information can flatten perspective out - like a living person flattened into cubism at its most dogmatic.

Maybe, instead, it's about something built more like the new Arcade Fire video : type in your childhood street address, and a band, a filmmaker, Google street view, and your monitor interact so a music video is set in your old stomping grounds. It's like mass customization. Something universal is particularized. But instead of tennis shoes or interior design, it becomes part of my story.

My hope is that this is what happens when designers and I collaborate on the MakeWork project - where Caleb has lived builds who Caleb is. Where Beth has lived builds who Beth is. Where Nick has lived builds who Nick is. Maybe none of these is any surprise, in itself. But when these bang up against each other, around story, something surprising and cool might happen.

But wait a minute! But what about mobility? Aren't we told today that our identities are rooted in the fact that we're supermobile?

Okay, it gives new us freedoms in talking about who we want to be. But when it comes to who we are, I'm not so sure. I've been listening to Bessie Smith's Thinking Blues a lot lately. And it's prompting a rewrite of a story about how place shapes what it means to be a "five cent nickel" - a real thing.

Collaboration is the New Creation

2010-08-10T12:12:00.044-04:00

>> thoughts at the start of a new project, part ii

As a writer, I work with graphic design studios - uniting visual and verbal articulation of clients brands. For my MakeWork project, I am going to work with a group of designers, to do this with fiction.

It's not an ordinary book of stories - because after writing each piece of fiction, I will give it to one of the designers - who will interact with it through graphics, illustration, layout, whatever they like. Bringing eight strong visual voices to mix with and bump up against the strong verbal voice of the eight stories.

After ten years, I’m at a point where I have carved out a strong communications business in Chattanooga, and have made time to return to writing fiction. This is going to happen anyway.

But the MakeWork Grant is making it possible for my book to be more than fiction – it’s going to be a design artifact, created in collaboration with visual artists.

In fact, in my work with graphic designers we to do exactly this for client projects – uniting strong visual and verbal points of view. Now we’re going to do it with fiction. Each of the eight designers are strong design voices in Chattanoogan. Even if they’ve recently moved away, to big cities and great opportunities.

In Boston: Michael Hendrix, Creative Director and Head of Office, IDEO

In Chicago: Liz Tapp, Designer and Art Director, Mule Magazine

In San Francisco: Joseph Shipp, Senior Designer, Project M Lab and C2 Design

In Chattanooga: Ben Horner, Creative Director, Papercut Interactive; Leslie Jensen-Inman, UTC Design Professor and Owner, More LLC; Beth Joseph, Designer, UTC student; Roby Isaac, textile designer and principal at IV Design Lab.

Then Paul Rustand of Widgets & Stone, a long-time collaborator, will help me unite all of the stories into a single book, an artifact, an asset.

Why Collaborate? Because one point of view isn’t enough for me.

Faulkner in the Paris Review, 1956:

F: “The reason I don’t like interviews is that I seem to react violently to personal questions. If the questions are about the work, I try to answer them…”

PR: “But even if there seems nothing more to be said, isn’t perhaps the individuality of the writer important?"

F: “Very important to himself. Everybody else should be too busy with the work to care about the individuality."

Many artists seem to be seeing the value of individual voices banging up against each other right now, and collaborative projects are popping up everyone. And it's no surprise that music is leading the way. My favorite albums of the past year are collaborations: the Sparklehorse/David Lynch/ DangerMouse project, new Gorillaz and M.I.A., and Atoms for Peace. Then there are Lady Gaga's position as a Creative Director with Polaroid; and Free(nch)-stylin' Chromeo with Surface to Air. These are bigger than simple brand extensions; they're collaborations.

Even closer to my heart, the geography-obsessed Zuiderzeemuseum is a park/project/museum in the Netherlands that surrounds visitors with art, fashion, heritage and design made in Holland. And right here at home, past MakeWork grant recipients YoungMonster collaborate with bands in ways that bring new meaning to gig posters – and by extension – gig happenings.

This is nothing new. Take a moment to Google about the string of collaborations between Stravinsky, Auden, Cocteau, Picasso and Diaghilev. Or more recently - choreographer Merce Cunningham, artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, and musician John Cage.

So wait, won’t collaboration get in the way of personal expression?

The other day I was asked if I was worried about the book not being “My Book”, since I’m co-creating it. I’m not. Individuality in style or expression isn't something that comes consciously. It can't be avoided. In other words, it'll be my voice. And I tend to agree with Faulkner anyway - the project isn't about me, it's about the work.

On one hand, fiction writing is very personal, based out of my experience. At the same time, when I take a step back, there must be something that translates, that one of the designers can relate to. That translates to his or her experience. And hopefully, eventually, to a reader/viewer too.

I'm very interested in these moments of connection, and the artifacts of inspiration they produce. And how it can make a reader feel the same things I felt, or experienced as I wrote a story. Or at the moment when I see what one of the designers does with it.

Maybe reading something original and innovative makes us feel a little more original and innovative. But it also feels familiar, because it resonates with those traits, deep in us. Or even encourages them. As I once wrote for a client - being inspired, it turns out, can be inspiring.

And every time an artifact of such experiences is launched into the world, it becomes shared anyway. Not mine, but ours.

With this project - I'm just as excited about the fact that the end product will only tell part of the story. Half the fun will happen along the way: exploring, experimenting. A bit of creative defibrillation. The squeeze of constraints that force an idea into reality. Finding connections between people and places, visual and verbal, methods and meaning. And those moments of joy when we turn a corner and the path to creativity becomes clear.

Fingers crossed.

The Arts Matter... Don’t They?

2010-08-10T11:24:00.031-04:00

>> thoughts at the start of a new project, part i

The foundation folks funding our fiction project asked this year's grantees to write on why the arts matter in Chattanooga. A great question - and I'm looking forward to reading each person's thoughts... click here to read for yourself.

My hope is that at least a few of them will write about art’s ability to serve as economic driver and shape Chattanooga into the sort of city we love. But I’d like to start from a different angle. A friend of a friend, in art school in Amsterdam, described his courses with these words: ”Nobody does their homework anymore.”

His program has no art history courses (seriously) - and so no sense of considering one person's work as a contribution to something bigger than himself. Student crits are reduced to either “You are hero prophet” or “You are a jerk and a hack.”

In fact, the whole game is about finding one original, intuitive uppercut that established his identity as artist. So young artists pop Ambien and Prozac to live, mushrooms and ecstasy to paint.

Oddly, today more than ever we are hearing artists’ language used by business. Publications and pundits preach about innovation, intuition, inspiration and iteration. These are wonderful things – and when applied with real design sensibility, they can be highly effective. But applied broadly, as vector strategies for entrepreneurial acceleration, they produce the equivalent of vampire romance stories.

I can’t blame businesspeople for co-opting such language. After all, artists have used lingo as a shortcut to sound creative, for generations. Insisting that "the Artist" = Teacher, or has a lock on Inspiration, or exists to Open Up the Door of Perception. So, after years of hearing artists say “We are the Other, separate from the rank and file,” CEOs want a piece.

There's certainly room for all sorts. But is it all just about a semantics of Celebrity and the search for One Big Thing? Sheesh.

Here’s to hope that there’s more.

My favorite artists know that creation happens in revision. That original expression is hard work. And it seems that we're seeing more and more artists like this today - who think and act like small business owners. After all, the days of subcontracting “the business side” to a Theo or a Sabartes are largely past. Outsourcing distribution and marketing to a publisher or label doesn’t really cut it. Many artists are creating in smaller contexts, for smaller merchants. And those smaller merchants are creating promotional ecosystems to have global reach.

Two examples: the band Rural Alberta Advantage – which seemed like an “overnight social media sensation”, but only because they worked their Canadian bums off. And Printed Matter, Inc., a Chelsea bookstore which for the past 30 years has been leveling the publishing playing field – selling books by someone who had held solo exhibitions at MoMA, right next to books by someone who lives in rural Iowa.

Distinction without a difference?

So am I saying that the arts matter, because we are thinning out the distinction between artists and business? Not really. I think the arts matter, right here right now, because what it means to “be an artist” is changing in important ways.

#1:

Great art is being created as avocation. People in all walks of life are producing highly original creative works – and it’s often more interesting, inspiring and beautiful than work by folks whose identity is so wrapped up in being an "Artist" that they forget to push hard into new territory. My colleague Benjamin Kelley is the best carpet sales rep I’ve ever met. You read correctly. But before you jump to conclusions, click the image below to see his amazing, beautiful and provocative sculpture.

I believe that Benjamin's voice is more relevant, rather than less, because he doesn't spend his time justifying his point of view. Instead, he spends his time paying for it, and expressing it. That's beautiful.

This doesn't have to be normative - not every artist has to view his or her work as avocation. But there is a freedom to this, that is worth noting. And great art isn't only made by "Great Artists", who are defined by the larger culture more than setting their own parameters.

#2:

I’d like to suggest that art matters in Chattanooga because artists are using muscles built in the creative process to shape community.

For nearly ten years, I stepped away from writing and publishing fiction, because I was building a communications company. But a lot of what I'd learned in creative writing came in handy while shaping the voices of corporations, upstart start-ups and charitable organizations. A few examples:

+ Originality still matters. But the focus is not on an original product, than bringing an original perspective to real problems.

+ We don’t have to fear failure. In fact, if we’re working hard on real problems, we will fail. But learn from mistakes.

+ Project constraints are good, opening up rather than limiting creativity.

+ Process matters. A writer’s process is: observe, reflect, experiment, revise. This applies to business as well as art.

+ It is okay not to know exactly where a project is going. In fact, this is part of intellectual curiosity: craft and method are part of the goal.

+ But it’s also important to know that the project matters beyond personal expression.

+ In fact, great writing refuses to choose between personal expression and interpersonal communication. Because empathy is, in many ways, the writer's best tool - and is best used at human scale.

Chattanooga has many artists who are much more talented, and experienced, than I am. Here’s hoping that they are using their creative muscles to shape community dialogue.

Because new ways of looking can open up new ways of seeing.

A Grant for 8 Stories in the Visual & Verbal

2010-08-10T10:22:00.008-04:00

A couple of years ago, I wrote copy describing a new program called MakeWork, which grants for artists, rather than taking them for granted – supporting rising and established artists in project and professional development funding.

When I wrote this, I was on a nearly-decade-long hiatus from writing and publishing fiction, carving out a career as a marketing writer and communication consultant in Chattanooga. But watching from a distance, I was inspired to re-engage, and apply myself.

I applied to write a collection of eight short stories, in collaboration with 8 graphic designers with whom I’ve worked in the past but don’t have many opportunities to, anymore. And was awarded a grant for the project.

So here we go…

Will Work for Free

2010-08-10T10:15:00.004-04:00

How one writer built a portfolio, a business and a career in Small City USA – by doing free work for great orgs. Written at the request of CreateHere...

Read the full entry on their site.

Presentation to AIGA on DESIGN + WRITING

2010-08-05T13:08:00.017-04:00

Last month I was invited to present to both AIGA (the Professional Association for Design) and to the principles of professional design seminar at UTC on how I work with designers.

As a writer in Chattanooga who works with design studios and agencies in town and beyond, I talked about how verbal articulation of a brand works alongside the visual to reinforce and support communication. Not just in the final sprint of a project, as copy and design are being polished, but all along the lifecycle of a project.

I also talked about how designers’ process is like ours (observe, reflect, iterate, revise), and what in particular writers bring to the table. Especially when it comes to brand articulation, communication with various audiences and helping clients develop the right muscles to generate ongoing content.   

And threw in some of my experiences on writing business objectives of brand design, voice guidelines, headlines, body copy, media releases, etc.

Hopefully these can help designers can create better tools for their own business (in case they ever find themselves on a desert island, and forgot to bring along a writer).

Finally, we had some good dialogue about how in my own work, lately I’ve found myself drawn away from the explicit control of clear statements. How much can I ask of the audience? How much can I say, in how little? How close can I get to ambiguity and silence, and where is this a communication asset?

Thanks again to Mark Cooley and AIGA folks, and to Leslie Jensen-Inman and the UTC class. It’s always most fun when dialogue is a two-way street!

If you’re interested, download a 7MB PDF of the presentation here (best viewed in Acrobat; please respect copyrights, etc).   

Small Business is Big Business in Chattanooga

2010-04-21T16:18:00.001-04:00

During the recession, have businesses innovated to position for when the market turns? And is this happening in Chattanooga?

Yes and yes. Read all about it - and how we're using communications design to help, in a post on the Widgets website. Click here for more.

Creating a Super Market Town (with Widgets & Stone, and Gaining Ground)

2010-04-21T16:16:00.001-04:00

Case Study: how to build grassroots support for local food posted on the Widgets and Stone. Read it here!

Can the Public 'Borrow' Private Spaces (and so animate our streets)?

2010-04-18T16:50:00.000-04:00

Online media platform Chattarati.com invited us recently to post our an op/ed on "what matters now". Working with Widgets & Stone to communicate an idea I had as I drove down Chattanooga's Market Street - and which Paul Rustand of Widgets took and made communicate beautifully.

Chattanooga is becoming known for innovative ideas, cool events and great places to have great experiences. But what about the spaces—and times—in between? The long stretches of dead street between point A and point B. Boring Tuesday afternoons and silent Saturdays.

As a city, we need to deliver more than big, cutting edge, glamorous, attention-grabbing moments. We also need the connective tissue that connects the dots.

Here’s one idea for bringing everyday animation to these gaps. What if some of the holes in the downtown experience were publicly shared by their private owners, on an interim basis? With simple, low-cost space interventions, space could be created for life to grow organically, at human scale.

Rather than inhibiting development of these spaces, such animation can inspire new ideas and new tenants. So that now—as well as later, when they're developed—they bring life to the city, and the city to life.

See it here.

Half Campaign in GOOD magazine

2010-03-10T15:19:00.000-05:00

An article I wrote with valuable edits and insights from Widgeteers:

Not bad. Half GOOD (magazine).

Love The Blue Plate

2009-10-08T10:05:00.000-04:00

We do love The Blue Plate - it's not often that working with a client is so delicious.

Catch up with how the designers at Widgets and I are helping get out the good word about fresh-from-scratch eats at Chattanooga's metropolitan diner - click to jump to the case study.

Get up, Stand up

2009-09-21T14:14:00.000-04:00

Congrats, Stand - 25,000 times over. Now, let's get this party started.
Don't know what I'm talking about? Read more in a new post on the Widgets website.

Good week.

2009-08-01T06:34:00.001-04:00

Meet Meat

2008-12-20T21:05:00.000-05:00

At last, Chattanooga has a local butcher of the artisan sort. Named after Main Street's historic handle, Link 41 is Trae Moore and Tom Montague, whose love of the craft has led to stints with butchers famous and unknown, around Europe and our local foodshed.

Their business model at present is to find a pig they like, take orders and then bring home the bacon, loins, sausage, and everything in between. Because they are intentionally starting grassroots with a loyal base of followers, even in advance of identity development we helped create some simple collateral.

It seemed best to give a simple message about why they - and the meat they offer - are different. For the love of Pete, and for the love of place, it's For the Love of Pig.

words words words...

2008-12-05T01:07:00.000-05:00

More to come on this soon, but can't wait to mention a new project. One that involves 2,000+ potential headlines under a unified umbrella strategic system and - as a result - allows teams of volunteers to create and apply targeted messages to 25,000+ audience members, for hopeful engagement.

I'm really thrilled that such a copy-driven concept has been adopted by the widely diverse committee that is steering this ship, and will write more as it comes out the business end of Widgets' grand designgrinder.

update: Chattanooga Stand

Don't Waste Chattanooga

2008-12-03T16:53:00.000-05:00

green|spaces launched to help promote ecosavvy building in Chattanooga by funding 20 LEED certified buildings in our downtown core.

Less than a year later, its directors, Anj McClain and Jeff Cannon, have become the voices of green in town. It seems that just about every sustainability-related project from new recycling efforts to raising money for an energy-efficient Habitat for Humanity project comes across their desks. And it's a good thing, too, because in that office on Main St experience and insight unite for the greener good.

One of their projects this Fall that I've had the pleasure to help promote are public recycling bins. Created for a big public event, but permanent enough to be, well, permanent.

Simple messages. Because most people only give recycling a glance, and we've got to catch em to get em to care.

go green|spaces, go.

NOTE: Just posted a full - and updated - g|s case study on the Widgets & Stone web.

CreateHome

2008-12-03T16:40:00.000-05:00

CreateHere recently launched a new website. Since there are few writers in the city who have broad experience with brand, PR, and copywriting, I am helping teach young writers there to understand what words bring to the table.

And then to use words to help Chattanooga business and nonprofits.

Sarah Lester and Véronique Bergeron both show real talent, much more than I had when I was their age.

I wrote the blurb for their site's home page, with a quiet tip of the hat to the man who has helped shape so much of what it means to be a creative entrepreneur in today's marketplace.

Green Breads from Niedlovs

2008-12-03T16:35:00.000-05:00

The local paper, our beloved Chattanooga Times Free Press, ran its first-ever green business section this Fall. And Niedlovs Breadworks, a longtime client and favorite breakfast spot, asked me to help create an ad that would stand out from the bunch of bandwagoneers who were advertising there.

Since the bakery's earliest days, Niedlovs has been committed to organic ingredients and artisan methods, to the local food economy, to community building and even to composting - all things that contribute to truly sustainable 'sustainability'.

Rather than pull a somber face, it seemed more suitable to have some fun with the message. After all, sustainability is nothing new for Niedlovs. Plus, John and Angela Sweet, the owner/operators, have an understated undercurrent of good humor that their regular customers know and enjoy. Joseph Shipp designed.

Fit Feast

2008-12-03T16:33:00.000-05:00

Fitness Together - those gurus who do their voodoo so well (and last year proved on my body that fitness marketing can be true) - asked me to write an invitation card for their holiday party.

So I wrote this piece; Joseph Shipp laid it out. The audience? Clients, fitness aficionados and whole food junkies.

Given the holiday timing, a re-rendition of Rosemary Clooney seemed appropriate.

Catching up on Case Studies: CreateHere

2008-09-01T23:28:00.000-04:00

Wrote a CreateHere case study for Widgets & Stone blog, the story of helping a client name, brand, articulate and launch nearly a year ago. The image here is one of my favorite bits of copy in the past couple of years, written for their launch.

CreateHere recently become an independent client of mine. I'm starting to help CreateHere especially with marketing messages and PR strategy/implementation.

There are some good young writers there, and I'm very excited about working with them to help develop their business and copywriting abilities. Love the idea of an army of writing thinkers in Chattanooga, here to serve.

35 85 : writing strategy

2008-08-27T16:30:00.000-04:00

In a consumer landscape overloaded with advertising, most marketing communications just get lost in the clutter. It's not enough to have good news. Good news has to be delivered well, the right message in the right place at the right time. And good design can make or break an investment: catch an audience's attention, inspire and hint at the unspoken promises of the brand.

As writers, we've got to stop thinking of the job as just stapling a copymessage onto an ad or a logo. Dig down into what the brand’s objective, personality and promise as well as the values, personality and hopes of the target audience.

Communication is difficult in any channel - think of how complicated the process of speaking and listening is... words from my mouth have to jump through the air to your ear, with a million assumptions on either end and a million distractions in between. Our approach to finding the right words and delivering them in smart ways apply not only to taglines and copy blocks, they also apply at a macro level to how messages carve space out in the market. And great designers understand that copy and design working in unison help communication happen.

35 85: a Chattanooga party is my favorite example from this month, of how writing and design unite to catch the attention of busy people during busy times, and create something that is anything but the same-old-same-old.

Click here for a case study wrote for the Widgets & Stone blog. High five especially to Joseph (for the design) and Elana (for the implementation) that made it rock.

Block Mosey

2008-08-27T16:07:00.000-04:00

Rebekah Forman of the St Elmo neighborhood board asked for my help in coming up with some names for events - in particular an upcoming neighborhood party that will actually string together block parties in one big bash.

I've long been a fan of St. Elmo and so when I woke up before light one morning and couldn't sleep had some fun with it.

Objectives:
• Emphasize the name “St Elmo” - it’s a beautiful name; incorporate the name itself into the name of your event to further your goals re: neighborhood's brand.
• Go a step farther, tying it especially with the lovely new St Elmo mark.
• Communicate the fun, relaxed, worth-a-bit-of-your-time character of the event (and of the neighborhood, for that matter).
• Perhaps above all emphasize people taking a second look at St Elmo - it's more than they expected.

THE ST.ELMOSEY was hands down my favorite of that early morning brainstorm. Focuses on the experience of being at the party, with a short tagline. Stay tuned for some of the backup choices to appear in other St Elmo collateral.

one voice in the WILKOMMEN

2008-08-22T22:40:00.000-04:00

How to make one voice stand out in the collective "Wilkommen" that Chattanooga is shouting? Especially when it's a voice worth listening to, representing quality, reliability and innovation, like Collier Construction...

Ethan Collier and brother Aaron decided that they want a TFP ad in the special VW section, and asked Widgets to help develop it. And - with the typical Collier combination of fun and savvy that has enabled their company to grow yearly even in a downmarket for construction - they decided to run the ad in German.

After a bit of head scratching about how to get spot-on translations, we hit on a direction. By "we", I mean primarily Matt Greenwell (clever guy, he should be a college professor or something), who romanced Google a bit and came up with rich possibilities including tidbits from VW campaigns in Europe.

Particularly lovely was "Aus Liebe zum Automobil" - "for the love of the car." Several years back, VW intro'd this as its first worldwide slogan (rather than slogans for particular cars), pushing love not only for autos but for its German heritage. This quickly transformed into "Aus Liebe zum Haus," which is a nice message for a VW special ad section, for several reasons.

1) It will stand out from what I've seen so far of the ads that locals are running. "Farvenooga" and the "Willkommen" banners all over town are the obvious examples: in a typical American fashion we think these are grand gestures, but they are very focused on ourselves, showing how monolingual we are both literally and metaphorically. Can't help mention it - have you noticed that the "Willkommen" banners have the word translated, you could even say subtitled, in small-font-parentheses underneath? Says so much about us, our limited view of the world, and how the world (including Wolfsburg) should view us. The Collier ad, however, speaks to VW using their own past, marketing from their home country. It shows research. Respect for and interest in another people's history, rather than only for our own future.

2) The headline is better than something exclusively or specifically "green" (e.g. "Aus Liebe zum Erbe" or some such) because Es ist nicht alles Grün, was glänzt. And Collier is green not for its own sake but because sustainability is a big affirmation of life. Home is part of this picture, certainly.

3) There is even a nice hint of design savvy (bau"Haus") for our worldly-wise, educated Eurofriends. And knowledgeability about design is an important connotation for a contractor, and one that is fitting for Collier's values and skills.

So the ad ended up with the headline in German, then English body copy that developed the concept. Without a hint of subtitling.

i love green|spaces

2008-08-19T11:51:00.007-04:00

Ohhhhhhh, green|spaces is the place to be. Urban living is the life for me.

But until I find my house downtown I'll have to settle for the amazing space that has become the office and resource center for green|spaces, which is hands down one of the most innovative and potentially influential groups working in Chattanooga today.

I've worked with Jeff Cannon and Anj McClain since "back in the day" (as Jeff Cannon would say), watching them attain funding (not surprised, but still very impressed), helping them come up with the name and initial articulation for their initiative, and on bits and pieces of collateral or press when invited.

But the first major project undertaken for them in a while was the creation of big panels for their space, educating visitors on the need for more environmentally savvy construction (from concept to occupancy and beyond) - as well as some of the model methods and materials that they used in the renovation of their own building. These are beautiful and effective pieces. Bradley Dicharry and Matt Greenwell rocked them, under the watchful creative direction of Paul Rustand, bien sur.

It was great fun to install them Saturday. They complement the many cool features of the space - from Thomas Palmer's architectural vision to Anj's extensive LEED knowledge, from paperstone counters and a poured concrete sink, to handmade furniture and a bookshelf constructed on site out of scrap wood.

Go by and check it out at 63 East Main (get more info at greenspaceschattanooga.com). Then support the vendors whose handiwork is on display. As you might imagine, they're local.

green|spaces also brought the opportunity to write the first Mayor's Green Pledge for our city... a good first step, primarily because it's a very public statement to which we can hold our elected officials.

As well as an opportunity to work with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, for messaging on their hybrid employee shuttle.

First round (not approved by client's client)

Third round (approved! this round's on me!)

Read more in a case study wrote for the Widgets site: go, green|spaces, go.

DeMoss Capital identity

2008-08-19T11:20:00.006-04:00

A project with Widgets & Stone.

It's a great time to live in Chattanooga. I find myself surrounded by innovative businesses and not-for-profit groups, working hard to better life here in town. So in the 8 years that I've been working in the local business community, I've sought out ways that I can support smart start-up entrepreneurs and not-for-profit visionaries.

I first started doing this back when I worked as Marketing Director for a law firm. I'd hear about a great group - like Big Brothers Big Sisters or Girls, Inc. - and call them up, ask if they had any writing needs. A bit of initial skepticism was the first response, an unspoken "What are you trying to sell me?" So I'd simply say that I work for a law firm and to counter the associated guilt I wanted to do some good. They usually laughed; they always accepted.

I view these monthly hours donated as a sort of "social tithe". And over the years I've had the pleasure of contributing to the work of great orgs like the Chattanooga Market, Crabtree Farms and green|spaces, as well as for profit startups like Niedlovs, Fitness Together and Zümfoot.

You can imagine my delight, then, when I first spoke with John DeMoss about DeMoss Capital, the asset management firm he has set up on Georgia Ave. But what makes his company most remarkable is not simply that it offers strong services. It is that he also has a "social tithe" built into his business plan. For two months out of every year, DeMoss Capital gives 100% of its fees to not for profit partners including Bethany adoption services, Crabtree Farms, green|spaces, Siskin and TakeRoot. To me, this approach to business seems to combine strengths of my adopted hometown: Chattanooga entrepreneurship with Chattanooga charitable giving.

We ended up taking him on as a client at Widgets. The team of Paul Rustand, Joseph Shipp, Matt Greenwell and took an approach that started with complexity - of money, of financial matters. Complexity is what people assume, and it's the opposite of what they want from their investment manager.

To bastardize Eliot: Opinions are great, but give me information. Information is great, but give me knowledge. Knowledge is great, but give me wisdom. And give me competence, truth, honesty and transparency in ways I can understand without having to take night classes in accounting.

I created customer archetypes - and with a nod to Marty Neumeier, Widgets & Stone illustrated them in this way:

Widgets created a mark and system that really reflects all of this. Particular props go to Joseph Shipp for taking on the difficult task of designing to communicate simply, in a miniature brochure that captures it in both spirit and letter.

Check out the DeMoss Capital website, launched by Coptix.

And one more note for other writing nerds out there. I'm often asked how I have fun writing about things like carpet and accounting. Well, other than the absolutely key factor of needing to find clients whose services are worth talking about, there's also the play factor in creativity. Sometimes it makes it to print, sometimes it doesn't.

Joseph and I conceived of a back of a business card that would begin with "MORE COMPLEX" and, through the use of scratch-off material over "OR" in the first word and "CO+X" in the second word, could reveal new letters to transform the phrase into "MADE SIMPLE."

Hopefully there will someday be an application of this, for DeMoss. But - geek that I am - one of the things that made me most excited about this concept is that the letters removed or replaced are "or," "co," "x," "ad," and "si." And you'll note that each of these letter combinations is an instantly recognizable word. How often does that happen?

Paper or Plastic? Are those my only two options?

2008-08-13T14:07:00.034-04:00

We still love San Francisco's historic decision to ban disposable plastic shopping bags, but it would serve us well to remember that the marketing push for their adoption in the first place, fifteen years ago, was environmental concern.

For every ten million paper shopping bags we use, we are responsible for the felling of an estimated 14 million trees. According to Treehugger, the total energy used and pollutants produced by every paper bag is nearly twice that of plastic... thus the push, not so long ago, for what seemed to be a comparatively eco-friendly plastic bag. Although GOOD magazine also points out that today we've created an unbelievable volume of marine debris, much of it plastic bags.

Being between a rock and a hard place is nothing new for sustainability activists. Let's run our cars on corn? Great! Much better than nonrenewable and ozone-killing petroleum. But what would the impact of higher corn demand be on American farmers? Particularly those who are committed to growing crops without high yield genetically modified seeds or petroleum-generated fertilizers (if you still haven't yet, read Michael Pollen).

OK, then, what about sugar cane? It's a more efficient source of ethanol anyway; in Brazil, the world's largest producer of sugar cane, ethanol-only and dual-fuel cars have been sold since the 1980s. But what percentage of their sugar fields were once rainforest? And how much more would be clear-cut if Americans clamored for sugar cane at the pump?

So are we simply damned if we do, damned if we don't?

Well, there are great causes for hope. One is the rise of true lifecycle analysis in the past five years – smart ecoveterans around the world are pushing hard to subject the full life of a product to intense scrutiny... not only in the classic understanding of "lifecycle" (from materials to market) but all the way from design to disposal/reuse. This helps us avoid false dilemmas such as "Paper or Plastic?", and leads to big shifts such as what's happened at IKEA. When IKEA became the first major US retailer to begin charging customers for plastic bags, they did so with the stated intention to eliminate their use entirely - while at the same time cutting the cost of their reusable "Big Blue Bag"s from 99 cents to 59 cents. And with the pledge that until their customers catch on and start bringing their own bags, the company is donating profits from the 5 cent cost of each plastic bag to American Forests, to fund the planting of trees to restore forests.

But the best reason to be optimistic is the continually growing groundswell of re-thinkers who don't assume that just because an advance is brought to market, that it is "the answer". Who know that sustainability is not a destination, but is a matter of steps in the right direction. The market has always had a voice (it's our own fault that we're in today's consumption nightmare), but buyers are now acutely aware of their ability to shape supply. And want to use it for good.

This ties into a trend that is top of mind for marketers today. Brand loyalty isn't as much of a decision maker as it was a few years ago. Car shoppers can buy a quality product from BMW, or Audi, or Honda... or even Kia. It's said that nearly 70% of consumers can be swayed in the store re: which product to buy. There are, of course exceptions. Cigarettes, for example. Smokers are fanatically loyal to their Camels or Kools. Maybe we're all protective of the things we love, that hurt us; the Late Great Vonnegut once called smoking the only socially acceptable form of suicide. But smoking isn't quite so cool anymore (and curiously enough, dying is much less trendy than it was a decade ago). Today it seems that its much cooler to live, and help others live.

And brands that are thriving most today are ones partnering with causes beyond their brand. Mini and Nature Conservancy share billboards (and messaging). Greenbuild is growing by leaps and bounds during a time when many interiors expos are dying on the vine, or struggling to reposition themselves.

Or the glory story: the Project (RED) campaign, which is brilliant because it takes all comers and uses their products, motives, everything, for good. As the associated brands are clamoring for attention, as actors scramble to be included in the latest photo shoot, the full weight of the marketing machine truly is helping save lives. I was in New York at an eco-savvy fashion show the first time I saw one of the überhip models wearing an übertiny HAMME(RED) t-shirt from the Gap. At first, skepticism kicked in and I wanted to poke a bit of fun at the apparent incongruity between his context and the (RED) context, but I stopped short. Irony was trumped by the cause. Whatever his reasons for wearing the shirt, whatever Gap's motivation, the fact is that his shirt provided 41 doses of nevirapine treatments to a pregnant woman in Africa, to prevent the transmission of HIV to her child. And this is something wonderful.

Frankly, I believe that consumers don't enjoy being skeptical. It can be fun and funny, but it was much more fun to have my mouth shut by the truth of the (RED) t-shirt. Because like many people out there, I love to be surprised by truth and goodness.

Corporations aren't incompetent - far from it. And they go where the demand is, shaping it along the way. It'll be interesting to see how branding responds to a market that refuses to choose between X and Y. We'll see more brands unite around sustainable causes, for sure. Hopefully their ad budgets will help reduce environmental and human injustice (here's a starting point: fashion has always depended on developing nations. Some work to be done there). Alongside my client Tricycle, I have been glad to be associated with many groups that promote sustainable causes, because these relationships offer more situations where we can push for reducing unnecessary design waste, and continue to insist that something that is not made cannot be wasteful.

And where, perhaps above all, we can continue to promote transparency in these organizations. Because the company that says the same (true) thing in public and in private will move forward, while others find themselves backpedaling through backlash.

“Sound Off” is an op/ed post by editors of the Tricycle blog. The opinions may or may not reflect those of the Company. Caleb Ludwick was communications director of Tricycle, Inc. Shortly after writing this post, he bought a (RED) t-shirt.