We have a tradition of sending friends, clients, and others Christmas gifts of coffee and original art. One year it was linocuts. Another year it was potato prints. A couple years ago we sent "art kits" and let our client create art for a competition. Well, not to tip our hand or anything, but this year we invited our friend Carl Blair over to oversee our creation of some original works. Everybody worked on the process that resulted in a bunch of cool art. Of course the Carl's demonstration pieces were the best. He actually gave us one, which may…

I don't remember it, but I am told that I was born on the coldest day of 1958 in Martins Ferry, Ohio. Maybe that began to shape my attitude about all things winter. I am not a big fan of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland." I'm more about "Hibernating in a Dark Winter Cave," and "Wake Me When it's Over." It should come as no surprise, then, that Christmas is not my favorite holiday. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, "I dislike Christmas, the whole Christmas season, and since you asked, I'll give you the reason."As I was discovering, as a young…

Seth came into Anne's office today and told her we should be more up front about our faith. I don't know about that. I certainly wouldn't want to be accused of using my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ to get more or better business. On the other hand, it's not something we should be hiding, since it is such an important part of who we are. If it matters to you, Anne and I are part of a New Testament assembly. This is a group of Christians who meet simply unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, attempting…

Ran into our old friend George Lee today at Two Chefs. George is a top-shelf photographer, famous for using light to make really pretty things look breathtaking, and making less pretty things (and people) look really good. He is a master craftsman. Running into George started me thinking about the value of a photograph. Lately, it's become trendy to save money by using stock photography. In fact, we've done it some ourselves. Stock is getting pretty good now days. But a stop-dead-in-your-tracks visual image can be very valuable to a brand. What would Marlboro be if it weren't for those…