By longevity.

Levi started manufacturing jeans in 1873.

Let that sink in a moment. Doing the math, that’s 140 years ago (What is that in fashion years???)  That’s a long time to be in business, to be making a tried and true product. Think about how many changes, generations, revolutions and recessions that Levi’s has weathered! They’ve lived through it and seen it all, just like a tough pair of blue jeans. They might be faded and frayed, but boy, are they familiar, comfortable and trusty!

1873. Jeans during this time were commonly worn by  cowboys, lumberjacks, and railroad workers. The working people of the western United States. They went on to become popular among a wide range of youth subcultures, including greasers, mods, rockers, hippies and skinheads.  Today jeans are everywhere. 97.333% of people wear jeans everyday. Ok, so I made that statistic up. But not these: Consumers in the United States buy approximately 450 million pairs of jeans every year. On average, consumers have seven pairs of jeans in their wardrobe.

But going back to advertising. How should Levi Strauss & Co – an established, celebrated and legendary company – advertise in 2013? Well, I personally don’t think that they need to use any of the tired marketing tricks and gimmicks. They don’t need to be clever or trendy. They don’t need to push sex appeal. The don’t need humor or shock value.

How about this for an ad: A pair of blue jeans on a white background, with the headline, “Levis. We Invented Blue Jeans. You’re Welcome.”

I think the general public and culture-at-large awes them a big THANK YOU. Don’t be carried away by the trendy, flavor-of-the-day blue jeans manufacturer. They might not be around tomorrow. But I have a feeling that Levi’s will. Here’s to the next 140 years.

Last night I watched Bill Gates being interviewed on the Colbert Report. I was initially interested because I never really listened to Bill Gates talk before, at least not in a lengthy interview. While being loosely familiar with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, I was like, “what’s this guy up to these days, and does he have anything good to say?”

Of course it’s always hard to have a conversation with Bill Gates without bringing in Steve Jobs.

Painting in large brush strokes here, the world always says the typical thing:
Bill Gates, geek. Steve Jobs, cool.

You know, Bill Gates has no personality, brand image, design sensibility or style…when compared to Jobs. Of course Colbert covered this little detail. Then Bill went on to discuss his travels and humanitarian work. At one point, Steven asked him what was more important, data or passion? Great question! Without hesitation, Bill said passion. It was cool to hear that response. I have to agree. Passion trumps a lot of things. I wrote about that in another blog here.

While there’s no shortage of money in his bank accounts, here’s a guy who we think probably has a deficiency of passion. But not true, apparently.  I mean, I usually don’t associate passion with Bill Gates…I associate…well, Microsoft. In those 7 or so minutes, I found him to be humble, kind, even a bit shy. He didn’t give long, drawn out ramblings, but answered all the questions to the point. He addressed Steve Job’s coolness factor by saying, “He had his own style, his own approach.”

As I sit here and type on a Mac, I have a new found appreciation for Mr. Gates. Keep up the good work around the world.

Here’s to your approach.

As a designer, I’ve found a lot of times that people are afraid of white space. Like it’s a big scary monster or dragon or something. Why do we run away from it? Maybe its that we don’t understand or appreciate the value of it. White space. I often hear the words, “Can you make the logo bigger?” Or, “Can we add more color there? Or a photo, a burst, a bubble, something. Anything. But we need to fill that blank area more.” You get the point. What’s with this white space, and why are folks afraid of it?

In page layout, illustration and sculpture, white space is often referred to as negative space. It is the portion of a page left unmarked: the space between graphics, margins, gutters, space between columns, space between lines of type or figures and objects drawn or depicted.

The best question I’ve ever heard about composition or layout regarding this issue is not what can I add to this design, but what can I TAKE AWAY from it, to make it better? What one element might I be able to REMOVE in order to make the whole thing look and feel better? Sounds opposite, doesn’t it? But I shouldn’t.

I like to live my life the same way I like to design. Simple, minimal, clean. Less is more.

And man, do I LOVE white space. When we start removing it from a design, we start adding clutter.

The same rules could be applied to music, or any act of creation. Today I was listening to a few of the albums that Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin made together, the American Recordings. I personally think that this is some of the best music that’s ever been recorded. The story of the collaboration between Rick and Johnny alone is a great one, and I encourage you to read about It. I’m not going into detail about that aspect of it here, since this blog is about white space. But the American Recordings music, much of it is quite sparse and minimal. That’s where the magic spark is found. Most of it is just Johnny and his acoustic guitar, telling fantastic stories.  Maybe a few piano flourishes.  It invites the listener INTO the song. It takes alway all the noise, instrumentation and clutter that doesn’t need to be there. If there was a band on the track, it was always understated, always minimal. It always brought the most important thing to our ears. It’s just Johnny’s voice, which we know is just a force of nature. Rick Rubin, when he was producing thee special sessions, probably thought, “What can I remove from the song that would make it even better??” Let’s not add more cowbell here. It’s musical white space.

Next time you see white space, embrace it. Give it a big hug.  It’s a beautiful thing to take it.

I attended a creative/arts conference last week in Chicago called Story. It was a great time with great speakers, and I walked away feeling creatively refueled. It was here that I learned about World Vision Micro. This is a creative micro loan giving process, where you are able to essentially “fund a loan” in poorer communities across our world. In doing so, you are empowering somebody to launch, build, or expand a business.

In the states, we think that we need thousands of dollars to start a business. These folks are asking for $100-$400 to get started. What a contrast. These are people who are looking to start a grocery business, a sweater-making business, a bakery, even looking to purchase animals and farming tools. Simple stuff. But it spreads…in return you are helping those communities establish businesses and jobs and daily commerce. I learned about a woman in Africa who wanted to make school uniforms for her three children. She had one sewing machine. She got a loan from Micro, and was able to purchase another sewing machine. So she hired a worker. Now she has 12 machines going full time, all making school uniforms, and she has 12 employees from her village helping her. Isn’t that beautiful?

I stopped by the Micro booth at Story. I read about Maria Acatzihua, from Veracruz, Mexico. She’s in the coffee business, looking for a micro loan to purchase more coffee plants. Right on! It seemed fitting for me, because I love drinking coffee so much. Coffee and creativity is what fuels Saint most of the time. It only seemed natural to go with Maria.

And here’s the deal. The individual has to repay their loan back to Micro – this is not just giving someone free money. And the loan repayment rate is 98.7%

Are you a business owner who had a dream once? Have you experienced all the joys, difficulty, and fulfillment of birthing a business? Remember how you racked your brain when you thought about the daunting task of JUST GETTING STARTED?

Now’s your chance to help out other hardworking entrepreneurs.

Visit www.worldvisionmicro.org, read some success stories, and meet some of the entrepreneurs. If you’ve been there, then I encourage you to pay it forward. Partner up with Micro.

Last year, he worked on an App design for SOS Radio. It was a fun project and foray into the App design world.

He found out this May that it was selected as a finalist for the 2012 Radio Ink Digital Awards, in the Best Radio App category. Radio Ink hosts an Annual Conference (called Convergence), which recognizes the best new media within the radio industry. The winners were announced at Convergence ’12 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley.

Here’s the breakdown:
Client: SOS Radio, Las Vegas NV
App Designer: Saint Creative, Detroit, MI
App Developer: Digital Frontiers Media (DFM), Sarasota, FL

We surely felt like the underdog as we were up against such heavyweights as the Grand Old Opry, CBS, Absolute Radio London, and Chicago’s biggest classic rock radio station.

When asked how he felt about it, Mr. Creative, the Patron Saint of Inspiration and Inspired Work simply replied, “It’s a major award!” (keen holiday movie watchers will immediately notice the infamous Leg Lamp reference)

Indeed, we could tell by the look on his face that it felt pretty good to be recognized in this way, even though he was trying to act low-key.

Saint said that he would also like to thank the go0d folks at SOS Radio Las Vegas – for being a client, and for thus allowing him this opportunity….to shine.

So, we extend a hearty “Good Job to you, Saint Creative. Way to be.”

Now, Saint Creative can call himself an App Design Award Winner. Not that he always will refer to himself in this way, but he could, if he felt like it.

Check it out here:
http://bit.ly/NxdpXg

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
- Pablo Picasso

I love this quote. I think it has larger implications about life then we think. I’m sure you’ve heard many adults say that they have zero artistic ability. That they couldn’t draw a stick figure if they tried. I hear it all the time. Like a distant memory, it appears they lost their ingrained ability to express and be creative.

Picasso’s observation is true. All of us start out as little artists. Almost immediately, we are taught to observe, play, create, imagine, make, draw, color, doodle, explore, chalk, paint, cut paper, build things. Playdough. Legos. Coloring books. Paint sets.

Do you remember the first time you were introduced to finger painting? Wait, you’re telling me I get to smear my hands in all this paint, and spread it all over this large white paper in front of me? Talk about a kid in a candy shop! Are kids ever afraid to jump in? No, when you’re kid, you don’t think about it. You do it. You don’t care about getting messy, that you have paint all over your cheeks and arms. You’re creating art here. Art should be messy. Clean up is just a part of the process. Trust me, I have a 2 and 4-year old at the moment, I know what I’m talking about. Our home is like a little artist workshop.

A kid naturally colors OUTSIDE THE LINES.

A kid is naturally messy. Expressive. Imaginative.

Kind of like life should be (and often is).

But then something strange happens. As you grow older, go to college, start developing ideas, and enter into the workforce, people start telling you to stop all of this. They switch it all up on you. You aren’t supposed to color outside the lines. You aren’t supposed to paint with your hands. You can’t be too imaginative here. We have rules. Call me crazy, but I have seen a lot of adults who have put away their imagination.

“Come on Billy, you’ve grown up now.”

Well, I would propose to you that most adults have in fact lost their creativity & their imagination. Eventually, their sense of wonder and awe follows.

How does this translate into business? (After all, this is a blog for a creative business, so I need to “bring it full circle.”) I don’t’ know. But there should be a connection somewhere. I guess I’m lucky that I work in the creative field, that I get to use my imagination everyday. I hope I never lose it.

If you are an adult reading this, I challenge you to rediscover your embedded creativity. Stay colorful. Stay Imaginative. Like Steve Jobs used to say, “stay hungry, stay foolish.” Keep the kid-creative spirit alive inside of you. Same thing applies if you are a businessman or woman – even if this sounds… childish.

Sometimes, the companies that color outside the lines the most are the most beloved and successful. I’m just sayin’.

We live in a social media rich culture. Social everything. At times it’s hard to keep up, isn’t it? I was thinking about how most companies are expected to keep on blogging, tweeting, pinging, linking, liking, streaming, updating, and throwing stuff on “the Wall” to see what sticks. There’s more if you are a social media/messaging/marketing “expert.” If this is your job, now you are expected to always be found mining the Social Media soil, reporting back with all of the latest trends and topics. You are expected to be the authority on our ever-evolving creative industry (not that anyone is truly the authority on it). You are the ones who provide fresh, quirky, informative, clever insights into all of this Social Media and marketing mayhem. You put your quarter in the machine and watch it go.

Which is fine. I’m cool with that. I’m OK with riding the wave, and to be alongside you on that wave, too.

I think the irony in the whole thing is that we are all so busy with the day-to-day of business, that we rarely have time to get to our own social media stuff. I’m talking about creative, tech and marketing companies specifically. Sometimes they/we are the ones that have the least updated sites. Funny, isn’t it? Yet we’re the first ones to preach the necessity of this stuff to our clients. Sometimes they even hire us to do their Social Media management. Imagine, hiring someone to do your own social media, while their own social media has gone neglected!

All of this got my thinking about blogging, specifically in regards to Blog Frequency (new technical term). Because tweets and updates are fast and easy. We can manage those. A lot of people still have a blog. Saint Creative has a blog. You are reading it. I still think they have relevance on the web. We get annoyed by people who blog TOO MUCH, and we get frustrated by people who blog too little. The internet keeps an accurate score. Don’t you laugh when you find somebody’s blog that you know, and the last entry was dated October 14, 2008? Oops. They lost interest there.

And to be honest, we ALL lose interest fast these days. Our attention span is shattered, and if we aren’t hooked in two seconds, we’re outta here!

So what does a healthy blogging & updating schedule look like? I can tell you this – never force yourself to write a blog for your website. It just becomes a chore. Another job duty. A check list. It’s brutal. Have you ever tried it? You are forcing yourself to write something, forcing yourself to say something, anything, and we both know that’s not fun. Even professional writers will tell you that it has to arrive naturally.

I would even say don’t force yourself to have a blog quota; like, “I must write a blog a week!” You may do OK for the first few months, but then reality sinks in. You can’t keep up. Life’s timeline doesn’t allow for it, despite what Facebook’s timeline says. You get discouraged. You drop your blog. With Saint, I personally can only put out a blog at a moment of inspiration. Something has to hit me, where I feel compelled to write or comment about it. I think, “this will make for a great blog”, instead of, “oh crap, it’s Tuesday already, time to write a blog.”

So what about blog content?

Simply put, blog when you have something to say. The world wide web will keep on spinning. Content will always be spewing out. Make yours meaningful. Make it count. The most memorable, potent, powerful art – whether it be word, idea, music, blog – is delivered when the creator actually has something to say.

A good exercise, for a person, artist, or company, is to figure out what they actually want to say. I know it sounds elementary, but you’d be surprised how little people think about it. What do you want to communicate to your audience? It’s kind of hard work. Have it reflect and reinforce your social media. In theory, this will keep your readers happy, give them something to crave, and keep them coming back for more.

I just realized that I am writing a blog about how to establish a good blog. What is that called? A tutorial?

I feel the need to share with you some of the joys and challenges of navigating a small business. When people often ask me “How’s business going?” or “What’s it like being a business owner?”, I often tell them that it’s an adventure. That is, of course, the highly optimistic response. But it’s absolutely true. It’s an adventure of epic proportions.  You should try it sometime.

While “in business”, sometimes you feel like your traveling (or stuck) in the economic Valley of the Shadow of Death. Other days you feel like you’re on the mountain top and nobody or nothing can touch you. Most days, you feel like you’re in a small man-made ship (one of your own making) bobbing out in the ocean. You’re usually drifting, charting a course, exploring… but mostly engaged in the continual act of navigating.

nav·i·ga·tion (noun)
1. the act or process of navigating.
2. the art or science of plotting, ascertaining, or directing the course of a ship, aircraft, or guided missile.

There aren’t a lot of guarantees in the business ocean, but along the way, in the water, there are many rewards. Your net or your anchor may get stuck, but then you learn valuable lessons. You see many colorful, exotic fish. You stumble upon buried treasure. You observe many a beautiful sunset. Yes, the best part is that you can simply enjoy the scenery while sailing.

A lot of people will tell you that they have small business all figured out. That they have mastered and perfected it. That they know all the smart business strategies, practices, principles, and formulas that work. I am not sure that there are too many tried and true “formulas”, at least not anymore. Sometimes, the fact that it is not formulaic is what makes it exciting.

So, allow me to give you one business strategy/tip/priceless nugget that I have learned while navigating the beautiful business that is Saint Creative.

1. Serve your customer.

How many times do you read that in the business success manuals? They might say grab all you can, climb the ladder, maximize, synergize, capitalize, mark-up, leverage, and gain! What about serve? It’s down there at the very foundational and fundamental level. I bet the secret behind many of the most successful and celebrated companies and brands is that they are willing to serve you. I bet it’s jotted down somewhere in their books.

Serve your customer, and serve them well. Serve them joyfully with your good product/service that you believe in. Give them your best. Go the extra mile. Sacrifice a little, they’ll come back to you. They will enjoy the “wonderful service” that you provide.

Saint Creative is in the business of, well, creativity. If you are a client of ours, and you are reading this, I hope to offer the best creative service I can to you. Above all, my commitment to you is being creative. We’ll give you all we got. Above all the business admin, the local deliveries, the chaos, the delayed receiveables, the bottom lines, our goal is two-fold:

1. To inspire you.
2. To serve you.