NYC Bound!

“Fracture 1” will be featured in the “Black and White Show”, Brooklyn, NY, during the month of August, 2015.

I am happy to announce that I have been selected as one of 100 artists out of 1,358 entries to showcase my latest work in New York City! The first of my latest series “Fracture” will be showing at the second annual “Black and White Show” in Brooklyn, N.Y., sponsored by the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition Gallery. The show runs from Aug. 1-23, 2015.

The series is a haunting exploration into the fractured human nature and the fight within. “Fracture 1,” the piece selected for the “Black and White Show,” is the combination of stark black, white, and gray “shard” imagery that includes a total of 37 individual paintings that make up one large-scale 7’ 5” x 7’ 5” painting. The impression is an overwhelming feeling of a powerful struggle between two opposing forces.

The “Black and White Show” is a juried fine art exhibition comprised solely of black and white artworks created by artists working in all traditional and non-traditional 2-D and 3-D media, including film and video. New York’s art elite, Christiane Paul, the curator of Media Arts at the revered Whitney Museum of American Art, juried the show.

Art is a personal passion of mine of which I’m grateful to express both in my branding design business as well as in my fine art pieces. To be able to show and share my personal artwork is always quite an honor, and to show in New York, one of the leading art capitals of the world, well, that’s something special.

Please visit my new art gallery website at http://hornsby.gallery.

If you’d like more information about purchasing or exhibiting my work, please contact me.

What can a red nose do?

According to Laura Ries, President of Ries & Ries based in Atlanta, GA, you can build a brand with a red nose.

“A red nose is the visual hammer for Red Nose Day, a campaign started in the U.K. and has now moved to America. The Red Nose Day fund is a program of Comic Relief, a non-profit that raises money for children living in poverty. Hundreds of charities do similar work, but most don’t become as well-known or raise as much money. The difference? A visual hammer that drives the brand into the mind. It might be a simple or silly thing like a pink ribbon, a yellow bracelet or a red nose. Three visuals that have built powerful, relatively-new non-profit giants.”

Ms. Ries makes 3 points that will help any non profit achieve celebrity status.

1. Be focused: The best way to affect change is to focus on one issue or one disease or one disability. When you have a broad mission like the United Way, it is difficult to communicate what you do and it is hard to find one visual or slogan that can cover all that you do.
2. Be specific: Most vision statements of charities are too broad. “To create a just world, free from poverty,” for example. What does that mean? How can you visualize that? You can’t. That is why the more-specific campaign for Comic Relief is so successful.
3. Be first: Me-too campaigns don’t work. Instead of copying what has already been done (pink ribbons, yellow Livestrong bracelets, the ice-bucket challenge) and trying to do it better, find something you can be first in. Don’t use the same visual in a different color, create a new visual.

What If Your Brand Had ONLY 5 Years to Live?

How would you plan for your brand’s future if it was based on a limited run? Goals and objectives accomplished. Check. I call it “The limited brand” strategy. It’s a brand that focuses excitement and buyer loyalty on short-term goals.

We except change and “the new” everyday, but with brands…we crave it. The next updated software, phone, or the latest fashion trend, the newest music, or popular movie. Yet from a brand building and business perspective, we think brands should stay around forever. Maybe that’s why some brands lose their chutzpah? They need continued energy and creative input, and one way to build that is to attach a closing date. It’s the ultimate limited edition, so to speak. Consider asking yourself the following:

How would I focus my brand if I knew it only had five years to “live”? Would I…

• follow my performance more closely?
• make faster business decisions?
• focus more on producing the “got to have it factor”?
• see my brand more like fashion or as a trend?
• find creative ways to inspire and excite?
• add more value without adding cost?
• look for a more short-term commitment from my customers?

Maybe you can get where you want to be by starting with the end in mind. Something to think about.