Today's Contribution Journal

I've been working hard all day trying to find a look and feel for the Mental Pilates brand.  I have been working on this for years and years and not being a graphic designer has made it not even a hit or miss proposition, my efforts were more like a miss or miss proposition.

The challenge is on one hand the brand icon needs to reflect all of the hours of thought that underlies the Mental Pilates practice.  On the other hand, the brand icon needs to be simple enough to stand out in a 16 x 16 pixel icon in your browser tabs or bookmarks.  I have at least been consistent.  Every attempt erred on the side of being way too complex.  Many of you have lived through the Mental Pilates Lady with the tree in her head, the Mental Pilates guy that had slugs on the brain and many others that didn't even pass the wife & kids test.  (Thank you wife and kids for your honest feedback)  You see, since there is nobody in our immediate family that pretends to be a graphic artist most of the feedback was something like..."I don't like it.  I can explain why I don't like it, but I can not recommend a solution."

But, it isn't how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get back up.  Well today I tried another concept and showed it around, and low and behold, I waited and waited and it was OK!!!  She liked it!!  I do not think it will win a graphics design contest, but it doesn't seem to make people gag.  Which for me is unprecedented progress.  It also scales fairly nicely so it retains some meaning in the 16 x 16 pixel icon.

I am putting this front and center in my contribution journal.  Check it out on the Mental Pilates website and here in the blog.  There is still open debate on many details.  For instance, what do people think about the "head" that is in the Blog header?  Yes or no?

Any way, persistence pays off!!  I hope.  Let me know what you think.

Andy