Strange Trip from Brian Raszka on Vimeo.

The trip called “Life”. From the very beginning to the end. Cells splitting, growth, heart beating-it’s a gas.

As a cyclist myself I am intrigued. It’s a natural brand extension for Rapha to sell bicycles and befitting their high-end products, not just any bicycles. Bicycles designed and made by some of the best builders in the biz.

These bikes are not about price. One could find a bike to do what these bikes do for far less money. These bikes are about what we cyclists call, “bike lust”. What Seth Godin would call, “remarkable” as in people will remark about them.

The design aspect here that these bikes are well designed. The Rapha web site is nicely designed. Their clothing is well thought out and looks great. All of them are designed to be exceptional. They all revolve around the Rapha brand. It’s exactly how Apple products are marketed. There is a small market for Rapha products so they don’t bother trying to appeal to everyone.

Now, I don’t own any Rapha clothing but I aspire to and that’s the point.

I root for a company that places great importance on the quality of their products and how they are marketed.

A nice story regarding customer service:
My Mother-In-Law traveled across the country after the holidays. When she got to the Thrifty Car Rental office to pick up her car that she had left there while on vacation the office was chaos. Long line and people were yelling. Remember the snow storm on the East Coast right after Christmas.

I should make the point that she didn’t rent a car from Thrifty. She merely parked her car in their lot and was paying for only that service. This is what makes the story more amazing to me.

After finally getting to the front of the line, the Thrifty representative told her that her car was blocked in and they could not get to it. However, since she had been so patient and wasn’t yelling about the situation, they would provide her with a rental car free of charge to drive home. They would bring her car to her the next day after it was dug out of the snow and pick up their rental car. She said that that sounded good but she needed the GPS unit in her car to drive home as she was unfamiliar with the route. No problem, they would make sure there is a GPS unit in the rental car.

This type of customer service seems so rare and yet it doesn’t take this much effort on a daily basis to impress and bond with customers/clients. All most people expect is basic customer service anything else is gravy. Just a little bit of extra effort goes a long way. Sure, we won’t talk about basic customer service. Basic is basic. Nothing to talk about. Go that extra mile and you’ll have people talking about it.

Now I don’t know if this is a policy of Thrifty’s or if it was the representatives, “on-the-spot-call”. It’s not important either way. So, who do you think my Mother-In-Law will rent a car from if she needs to in the future. Or what car rental company she will recommend.

From the Photoshop tutorial on File info.:

File information–also called metadata–is increasingly important in all types of publishing. Adobe Photoshop supports the information standard developed by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) and the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) to identify transmitted text and images. This standard includes entries for captions, keywords, categories, credits, and origins.

In Windows, you can add file information to files saved in Photoshop, TIFF, JPEG, EPS, and PDF formats. In Mac OS, you can add file information to files in any format. The information you add is embedded in the file using XMP (eXtensible Metadata Platform). XMP provides Adobe applications and workflow partners with a common XML framework that standardizes the creation, processing, and interchange of document metadata across publishing workflows.

To enter information about a file:

1. Choose File > File Info.
2. For Section, select an option for the information you want to enter:

General

Lets you enter title, author, caption, copyright information, and the owner’s URL. To display a copyright symbol in the title bar of the image window, choose Copyrighted Work in the Copyright Status menu. If Photoshop detects a Digimarc watermark in the image, the Copyright Notice section is automatically updated.

Note: To print the caption under an Adobe Photoshop image, choose File > Print with Preview, and select Caption. Then print as usual. (See Setting output options for more information.)

Keywords

Provides a way for some image browsers to categorize and search for an image. To add an entry to the keywords list, type in the text box, and click Add. To replace a keyword, select the word in the list, type its replacement, and click Replace. To delete a keyword, select the word, and click Delete.

Categories

Lets you enter a three-letter Associated Press code. (Where available, the Associated Press regional registry maintains a list of categories.) To include the image in supplemental categories, type the code, and click Add. To replace a category, select the code, type its replacement, and click Replace. To delete a category, select the code, and click Delete.

Origin

Provides information on the history of the image. To enter the current date in a short text format, click Today. For Credit, enter the information needed in the credit line for a copyrighted image. Transmission Reference provides the Associated Press with information on the original transmission location of the image. For Urgency, specify the editorial urgency of the image–not its handling priority.

EXIF

Displays information imported from a digital camera, such as the date and time the picture was taken, resolution, ISO speed rating, f/stop, compression, and exposure time. For more information about EXIF annotations, see your digital camera documentation.

To load, save, or append file information:

1. • Click Load to replace the current information with information stored in a File Info file. You can load either an XMP file or an FFO file created by a previous version of Photoshop.
   • Click Save to save the current file information in an XMP file for later use.
   • Click Append to add information stored in a File Info file to the current file information. For each File Info field, if the field does not contain information then it will be updated with contents from the file. Caption and Keywords will always be appended with the information from the file.
   You can add copyright information to Photoshop images and notify users that an image is copyright-protected via a digital watermark that uses Digimarc PictureMarc technology. The watermark–a digital code added as noise to the image–is generally imperceptible to the human eye. The watermark is durable in both digital and printed forms, surviving typical image edits and file format conversions–and is still detectable when the image is printed and then scanned back into a computer.Embedding a digital watermark in an image lets viewers obtain complete contact information about the creator of the image. This feature is particularly valuable to image creators who license their work to others. Copying an image with an embedded watermark also copies the watermark and any information associated with it.

   For more detailed information on embedding Digimarc watermarks, refer to the Digimarc Web site at www.digimarc.com.

Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.

I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That’s when I was born.

If you don’t live it, it won’t come out your horn.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

I am always in favor of simplicity in logo design. The Starbucks logo has been incrementally simplified over the years(as depicted in the image above). I do think the current incarnation of their logo is stronger and indeed may help them when they move into new markets as many marketing experts suggest. Some suggest otherwise.

An identity by itself won’t send a business into huge sales or rescue it in tough times. What it can do, as has been proven again and again is provide the consumer with a way to quickly distinguish one brand from another in an increasingly crowded marketplace. It’s a piece in a businesses branding package, a very visible piece.

We’ll see if people will extend their brand loyalty to Starbucks brand kitty litter, windshield wipers or whatever else they decide to sell. If they can give the consumer the same experience that they get when buying coffee then they may be able to sell anything. Their recent downturn(they have since recovered) of sales has been attributed in consumers not getting the same experience that they used to. In other words Starbucks, “dropped the ball”. Long lines and surly barista’s weren’t what we used to get at Starbucks. It seemed Starbucks forgot what they sold-not just coffee but an experience.

To the naysayers I would say that this is a good move for the Starbucks brand. Now each product can be branded separately under the umbrella of the Starbucks brand-the job of their design and marketing department.

So, kudos go to Starbucks for taking a risk here. We’ll see what happens.