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When does a company need a new logo?

July 12, 2011 in Random thoughts | Permalink

“Hey, let’s do a logo. Maybe a new logo will help people pay attention to us.” Whoa! Why do you think that will help? Might it just be throwing something out and hoping it sticks?

An effective logo is like putting a front door on a house. Would you put up the front door first and build the house around it?  Well-built houses like successful organizations, aren’t made without a plan. With a plan, you will know what the house will look like before construction starts. Without planning, you may be wasting your time and money on a logo that doesn’t serve your company and doesn’t resonate with your audience.

The plan we refer to here, is a strategic branding plan. It will reveal your company’s position in the marketplace and give you a base for creating your identity and deciding  your marketing goals. The questions below are a few that need to be answered to define the company path and to develop relationships with your customers. Even if you are an established organization, answering these questions can add focus to your future endeavors.

  1. What is the mission of your organization?
  2. Why does the organization exist?
  3. What does the organization stand for?
  4. What makes this organization different?
  5. What are the key beliefs?
  6. What is the core idea of your organization?
  7. What value does the organization offer the customer?
  8. Who is your target audience?
  9. What is the organization’s competitive advantage?

The answers to these questions will tell you why people should love, trust and be loyal to your brand/organization. Successful companies plan strategically and do things intentionally. Companies with devoted followings such as Coca-Cola, Apple, Southwest Air, Whole Foods Market and Costco would not think of making a move without creating a brand and making decisions based on what they want the brand to say. On a local scale in Kansas City, we love Harvesters, Boulevard Beer, the Plaza, SPIN! Pizza, the Roasterie and Christopher Elbow Chocolates among others.

Few of us are lucky enough to have success fall in our laps. So why not increase the odds with strategic brand planning?

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Figgle-dee-dee: It’s fig season in Kansas City

August 13, 2010 in Creativity, Design, Green living | Permalink

“Fig season?” you say. “You can grow figs in Kansas City?”

Yes, and now, in spite of the 100 degree temperatures, is the time we fig lovers have been waiting for. Once you taste a fresh fig, you’ll never go back. Fig Newtons don’t even begin to resemble the sweet, soft flesh of a ripe fig. In fact, you may have to do as I did, run out and get a tree of your own.

I have been growing a fig tree in a pot for about 10 years. The tree makes a great focal point for your garden with its hand-sized, bright green, 5-lobed leaf. Smooth gray bark covers rather gnarly, spreading branches giving it, in my mind, an old world look.

Three years ago the tree really started to bear fruit in abundance, so much in fact, that from one tree I can have a small bag of dried ones to stash for winter. The variety that I have is known as Italian Honey fig or Peter’s Honey fig. When ripe, the fruit is a lovely yellow-green with a luscious, honey-like flavor. Yum!

Italian Honey Fig in full yum mode

The honey fig prefers zones 7 – 11 and can get up to 15 feet tall and wide but my potted tree is about 6 feet tall. It tends to get root bound and needs root pruning every 2-3 years. Because of this tendency, the tree requires lots of water in the summer. Organic “Fish and Poop” is my current favorite fertilizer for all edible plants. I fertilize starting in March, with monthly doses during the growing season until September.

In the fall the leaves drop just like any other deciduous tree so I roll the pot in an unheated garage where it goes dormant until March.

About two years ago I decided to try another smaller fig. This time “Petite Negra,’ which has a dark fruit with rosy interior.  Another advantage is that PN starts setting fruit at 1 foot tall even though it will grow to 2 – 3 feet tall. This year, it has lots of little figgies so I’m eager for the taste experience to come.

The 'Petite Negra' in June. It's not ripe yet in August.

In case you are wondering what a fig flower looks like, so am I. The flower is inside the fruit so what you see are fully formed wee figs sprouting from the tree. The fruit will be upright as in the photo but when it is ripe, the fruit becomes soft and the stem will bend until it droops. This is a good clue if your figs are the green type.

Baby fig in spring

The honey fig gets a little bigger

In our climate, zone 5 or 6, many varieties of figs will grow directly in the ground. If you leave the plant to fend on it’s own the branches may die to the ground every year. But, if you want to keep previous year’s growth, many people put a large wire cage around the plant, fill it with leaves and wrap it. Some figs recommended for zones 5 or 6 are Brown Turkey, Desert King, Osborn Prolific, Hardy Chicago, Honey fig and Bornholm’s Diamond.

If anyone out there in the mid-west is growing figs, I would love to know what works for you and what varieties you like.

Anja the kitten, learns about homegrown produce.

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And the winner is . . .

July 29, 2010 in Design, Green living | Permalink

Laura O’Brien from Bridging The Gap in Kansas City! Congratulations, she wins a raspberry pixie daylily! She correctly answered Arum italicum, a plant native to the U.K. It’s in the Araceae family which threw a few contestants off. They thought it was the native Jack-in-the-pulpit—a very good answer, by the way. I love the common names for it which are Cuckoo Pint and Italian Lord-and-Ladies. If you’re in the U.K. stop in at the Cuckoo Pint Pub in Fareham to have a toast to its namesake plant.

I first noticed this plant with its summer berries a couple blocks from my house and I had to know what it was. I finally found one at a local nursery and it has been a success in the shade under my cherry tree. This fall it will send up new leaves that will last all winter to the end of spring.

This photos was taken in spring but the leaves look the same. Notice how much they look like the houseplant, Arrowhead vine, Syngonium. In the spring, a strange looking bloom will appear.

Thank you Wikipedia commons for this photo.

After the sheath goes away, the center thingy becomes the berries. If anyone can fill me in on what you call that vertical appendage, I would appreciate it.

So here we are in July with lovely orange-red berries. Even though my wikipedia source says this plant can be invasive in warm climates, I have never noticed that happening here in Kansas City. It also recommends planting with hostas so the new fall foliage will cover the spent leaves of hosta in the fall and remind you where you planted your hostas. I think the orange berry stalk would look smashing in between hosta leaves as well.

Here’s what Missouri Botanical has to say about it. Mobot to the rescue! That vertical thingy is called a spadix.

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Growing food and beauty in your own backyard

July 17, 2010 in Design, Green living | Permalink

Next weekend, July 24 from 10 am to 1 pm, my garden will be open for touring. This is the first time that I’ve done this but I think it will be fun. I’ve been growing food mixed with ornamental plants for years and now it’s trendy. Woohoo! My cue came from Rosalind Creasy who wrote a wonderful book published in 1982 called The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping. I’m a designer, artist, environmentalist and pragmatist so of course, this idea appeals to me.

Edible landscaping is hardly a new idea. It dates back to ancient times in Egypt and and Persia where people combined fragrance, beauty and food in their gardens. It has gone in and out of fashion ever since.

Truly until recently most people haven’t had the luxury of landscaping just to look at it unless they were wealthy. But, because we in America don’t have to grow our own food, our lack of connection from the source of our foods, our relative wealth and increased leisure time, we can afford to plant gardens purely for pleasure. Gardens that in many cases try to emulate estates of the wealthy except on a smaller scale.

We in the US, where lawns are an ingrained part of our culture, have never seemed to wrap our brains around the idea of combining food with beauty in the yard. Even proponents of food growing seem to find the need to separate the two. The food growers want to grow all food in as big a patch of land as possible and the ornamental lovers seem to relegate food plants to pots on the porch or a hidden spot in the yard. As for tearing out your grass for either flowers or food? Well, that’s almost sacrilegious.

My garden is about beauty, about creative expression, about fresh organic produce. It’s about having a wonderful, soothing place to hang out when the work is done. It’s even about having a great place to party. It’s not about whoever has the most money wins or about perfection.

The garden in 2009. Upper left chard, center top broccoli, pink flowers are Autumn Joy sedum with red chard at right and at left rosemary.

Come over to see it. Contact me if you don’t know where I live.

Petite nigra fig with lemongrass in the back

Daylilies and oregano

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