now a little about branding...

Brands have equities... equities are anything you can relate to as "the brand"... touch, taste, sound, see, or hear. The touch of Harley Davidson is the rubber grips and the leather jacket. Taste doesn't apply to this brand soo much.. Sound is the distinctive rumble of the harley as it roars down the street. You can say they "own" that sound, so every time you hear that rumble you think "here comes a harley"....

so all the advertising and graphic design firms came up with this way to describe designs and why the coke can needs to be red, and have a script on it.  Other wise people will make bad decisions about packaging and tv commercials and product, i.e. New Coke...

these equities are usually assembled into a molecule graph, a chart of some sort, or a pyramid... the above illustration show the next step. The equity pyramid cake. 

orson wells sort of guy

why does cottage cheese feel soo cold in your mouth?

pecha cucha poster idea

this was a sketch for a pecha cucha poster. we had a series of presentations, for work. some people wanted to make presentations. this idea revolved around a robot with a speaker for a head standing at the edge of a cliff preparing to speak. it 12:20 on a sunday night. I usually go to sleep before this but I am waiting up for my wife, she is working at the church festival finishing up stuff. they rent out these giant tents and booths for all the activities. they spend all week building a tent city to house all the things to do. the big new thing was the dunking booth. All the old timers from the neighborhood were there. People that grew up there and have since moved on. some really old people who went to school there 70 years ago. The old neighborhood has changed since those days, the big  old families all turn out. with their children and grand children. It is hard to break into a neighborhood like this. you are hanging with people who all grew up together... but even though I have lived here 16 years I am not one of them... that is o.k. with me..  I am not tied to the place, but my wife and I got involved to make sure the school was open for my kids to go to...  I am sure some other people will come along after we leave to maintain the place. they all want a safe place for their kids to go to school. unless the city of cincinnati somehow gets its shit together and makes a school worth attending ... ha ha.. no way... anyway people grow up and want to move on from their parents.. so the places their parents built up end up being neglected and abandon. in Europe real estate is not like america. here we just move up the road and build a whole new city, because we have plenty of space.... it is odd to see places occupied for 50 years like an old school or church, built with the sweat and tears and sacrifice by hard working people trying to make a mark on this world... worn from years of use then left behind to rot... Bowling allys with nobody bowling on them, bars with cobwebs were no one will drink,  overgrown baseball diamonds... People expect these places to be preserved by someone, but the truth is there is no one left... kathy and I have inherited a lot of control of things in these parishes, we are strangers here but no one else will pick up the torch... it is somewhat sad... but america has a funny way of buying new vs quality... 

anyway I added three new songs I wrote on my myspace page  www.myspace.com/bartlaube  

somtimes people need a catsuit

inside people is a second person... 

that is the person they think they are... 

sometimes they don't like that person...

so they want to be someone else....

sometimes that inner person wants to wear a cat outfit....

what if instead of wearing the same clothes everyone buys at target...

people wore a costume of some sort...

a cat outfit... 

current fashion is very severe and angry looking

black and sharp, nothing to do with nature...

what if nature inspired the latest fads...

an owl look could be very popular....

or maybe it is more friendly like peoples pets...

the pet look...

you can dress like a cat or a dog...

then people would know what kind of person you are

and behave accordingly....

who's your daddy?

another one in the coffee series ...  

listening to This american life #289 Go ask Your Father radio show. It is about a guy who knew his father, but after his father died, another guy tells him he was his actual father. Then he goes on a search and the dna finally proves that the man who he knew to be his father was not his father.

I am pretty sure my dad was my dad. people commented at his funeral that I looked a lot like my dad...  but there are many things people do in life that they never share with anyone... especially with their children... life is long... people find themselves in various situations not of there choosing... or battle demons they can't always control...

I will never know what if any demons my dad or mom had. they both passed on to another place... they lived full lives and traveled before they were married. it would be hard to believe that some things never happened, but it is always a possibility... this only re-enforces my belief in God.. if people knew everything that it takes to create mankind or the whole universe... it would suddenly be shit.. because shit is basically the primordial ooze life was created by in the world of science.. If this is the whole of our existence...  then why bother with the whole thing... 

the facts that make a person who they are should not be the limit for who that person can be...

also if you know that much about your self you are probably pretty self centered and your world revolves around the minutia that makes up the forgotten and useless... 

the world doesn't care what sperm you were made of you are still just as viable a person as everyone else....

I wrote that top part earlier in the day... and the more I think about it the more, I wonder... abortion eliminates unwanted babies... but there are many famous people in history who were illegitimate births... or were born to non traditional families ... I wonder who has been lost to abortion that could have been great? 

A list of famous bastards pulled from the internet are

1. Confucius (ca. 551–479 BCE)

2. Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)

3. Thomas Paine (1737–1809) and 4. Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804)

5. Lawrence of Arabia (1888–1935)

6. Eva Perón (1919–1952)

I know Dave Thomas founder of Wendy's was adopted

Obama was from a broken home.. does this count?

are illigitimate babies driven to greatness to achieve ligitimacy? 

is there anyone studying this stuff?

just something to think about

angry pig whore

we were in a meeting talking about something

and angry pig whore came up somehow?..?

when you sit in little rooms discussing 

bathroom tissue for hours at a time

you can get a little stir crazy.

it goes down like this, someone says something

like 

"hey quit being so angry"

"I am not angry you just were eating all the jelly beans you pig"

"oh shove it, you whore"

"well your a whore as well"

"at least I am not an angry pig whore"

"my good fellow that is quite the humorous insult!"

"ha ha ha"

"ha ha"

"ha"

" we are quite the jolly fellows"

"that is true my friend, very true"

"now lets deduct this time from our time sheets because it is not work focused"

"but of course. how dare you imply otherwise"

"whore"

"pig"

"I am so turned on right now"

etc...

so anyway

we all thought it was funny so I drew a picture of one

Bo Diddley - Road Runner

bo diddley invents the pick drag on this song in 1957, as revived by Eddie van Halen in "cradle will rock" etc.

black blood

coffee is like blood in my system,

the hot blood runs quick through my viens

making me feel alive and quick witted

my brain works better

my legs run faster

my eyes dart back and forth

they move so fast they vibrate

I can feel ants walking on the surface of my brain

they are wearing pointy spikes on thier shoes

golf shoes

N S E W

the world is bigger than me, but smaller then you

everywhere and here, spacious times two

smaller than a bread box, when under my shoe

round like a basket ball, and solid straight through

yes this is our world, the one, the true

you cannot pretend that it is not here

you cannot deny it's impossible to steer

there is no rudder or planes or wheel

to make it go your way no matter how you feel

new sketchbook highlights

sometimes the best way to get rid of your troubles is to focus on someone elses... by helping someone you can forget about what is bothering you at this very moment and focus on what is bothering someone else.... this is a win - win situation. they get much needed help and you get to forget about what was bothering you... this culture has many t.v. show of navel gazing, self obsessed, troglodites as the main characture... to be a star you have to want to be the center of the solar system... with planets revolving around you.. so by its very nature you can get sucked into your own head and if you measure your head it is only 6 inches across. A very small place.  That can be very confining. 

work life

the things I draw for work are varied and diverse. I am never quite sure what will be needed. somtimes it is a pull from a magazine with the orders "draw this... like this..." or it is we just need some decent line art of this product. they tryed to ship out the line art to india because it was cheaper but they ended up spending so much time directing the art to get it right it ended up costing more than just paying a professional to do it ... like me... thats were the saying "a penny wise but a pound foolish" comes in to play... every company is trying to save money these days so they want to cut costs, but I don't make that much... so just pay it already....

I provide a quality product for a low cost, a bargain really... once the word gets out.. it becomes like an avalanch of demand... so I stay pretty busy.... anyway .... life goes on... the world rotates and a few hours of my life pass me by...

George Orwell 1984 P1

hey watch this movie if you never have... then compare it to society today... discuss

also on an unrelated subject. I was driving to work yesterday, It was rainy out... and an on coming truck swerved into my lane. I looked to see what he swerved away from. it was a squirrel that had been hit by a car. It was still alive. shaking and squirming. blood was coming out of its mouth. car were wizzing by at 40 mph. with cars lined up behind me I couldn't hit my brakes and slow down. as I looked in my rear view mirror. I could see other cars swerving around the squirrel. I looked at my bowie knife. left in my car from a camping trip... and make shift weapon. would a squirrel rather be stabbed? or stomped? after being hit by a car. what  could I do to help this squirrel? by then I was in front of my building. and decided to just let it go and go to work. 

later I saw his little flattened carcus on the side of the road. out of his misery... 

there are millions of squirrels in the city, billions on the planet... what does the life of one squirrel represent? what is my responsibility to said squirrel? 

accidentally in love, counting crows

this is a nice version of this song... I likede it so much I downloaded the mp3 and added it to my itunes check it out.

Julia Nunes is the artist. she has some good vocals and (often neglected)  harmonies. 

rant - rolling stone magazine has jumped the shark

Today I am taking a break from my usual sunny (sarcastic tone) web posts for some commentary.

When I was an impressionable young teen my hip older sister  had a collection of Rolling Stone magazines from the late 70's in our basement. It had cool stories about these new artists like Elvis Costello, and old stories about 50's rock legends Carl Perkins. A range of stuff. Today I am looking at a newer one with Metallica on the cover. Metallica has become known as a "we are doing this, and we expect to be rich" band. In the 70's that was seen as crass commercialism. Bands like Kiss were looked down on as a publicity stunt and not really producing any good music. Now the tables have completely flip flopped. Rolling Stone is a magazine dominated by commercial ventures to the absence of everything else. Like most journalism today it has turned completely yellow. I guess Sony owns it and uses it to promote its million dollar acts. It pretty much reflects our culture right now. Mostly whorish. and if it isn't whoreish it is pimpish. either you are exploiting everyone around you, or you are being exploited. Maybe I am just older and jaded but at least in the 70's people pretended to care. Now caring is seen as weekness, morals and purity are a ticket to obscurity. I am sickend by Rolling Stone Magazine.

A once proud and indepth source of information reduced to a crass t.v. commercial. At least the Slap Chop is not trying to pull anything.

It is time for Rolling Stone Magazine to retire.

here are some olives I just did

they were done in illustrator so they could be separated into spot colors for printing reasons.

the wireframes are also included to show how they are made with a computer. I shot the reference on a sunny day so you can almost see my house reflected in the highlights..

pat said they brought a tear to his eye... pat cracks me up....