On Nov 18, Richard Hollant wrote a post at Felt & Wire on the topic of gratitude. I learned about Richard’s post via Facebook where he asked family, friends and associates to comment about “thank yous” that we have received that have meant something special to us. I thought and I thought. I thought some more. I could not for the life of me remember receiving a special “thank you”. It made me rather sad. Furthermore, I couldn’t think of a recent time when I had sent a special thank you. Why is that?

Next weekend, October 16th, I’ll be taking a blanket, a warm woolen sweater and a picnic basket to The Sanctuary at Shepardfields in East Haddam Connecticut. My plan is to spend twelve hours unplugged (sorta), writing in the sunshine, and listening to the 14 bands which are scheduled for the Sanctuary’s Local Music Tribal Summit. I can not wait. The day should prove a wonderful mix of music and friends.

This summer, my son Kyler and I created an oasis (what we call the awaysis) in our backyard. It was a spot lovingly chosen under an apple tree and looks back into the woods behind our house. We have a huge variety of birds that visit (hummingbirds, and the Red-Tailed hawk being my favorites). There are flowers, butterflies and dragonflies. Kyler and I hung wind chimes, geraniums, and purchased the best glass top writing table we could find. We set up two chairs for the table and two lounge chairs for relaxed reading. This place is our escape. This place is where we go to do our writing and thinking . . . and a bit of wine drinking.

It seems lately, if you are in public relations, your job might be equated with something along the lines of being a unscrupulous used-car salesman. BP, the government, and even my beloved Apple, have contributed to the notion that PR is the cover-up agency for bad behavior or a poor product line. As Communications and Public Relations Director of AIGA Connecticut, I thought I’d write a few paragraphs on what I believe public relations is and why it’s important for your organization or business.

“There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.” – Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American Educator.

AIGA Connecticut Announces New Board of Directors for 2010-2011

AIGA Connecticut is pleased to announce its new Board of Directors for 2010-2011. AIGA, the professional association for design, is committed to furthering excellence in design as a broadly defined discipline, a strategic tool for business and a cultural force. AIGA is the place that design and creative professionals turn to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analyses and research, advance education, and uphold ethical practices.

Entering its third year as an established chapter of the national organization based in New York City, Connecticut joins 65 other national chapters. AIGA CT has had a remarkable start with events and quality programming that has included such names as Sean Adams, William Drenttel, Pam Williams, Alex Isley, Cummings & Good and Patrick Coyne.

Love. It’s what makes your heart sing. It’s rapturous moments of complete joy where everything seems perfect and the stars are all aligned. If we are creatives, we yearn to design, write, draw or paint with love too . . . but in the course of our days, the creative juju can get lost. We run our businesses, find ourselves more involved with paperwork, administrative tasks and a never-ending stream of meetings. We forget what it’s like to be deeply involved in the process of creation just for the love of it.

Sharing design love is the mission of founder, Troy Monroe, who along with founding members Rich Hollant, Constanza Gowen-Segovia and Brian Grabell created Design is Love.  With a gorgeous site design and welcoming language, Design is Love invites you to help share and shape a unique creative community with heart. But DIL isn’t just a meeting place for designers. If you are a non-profit, Design is Love can help you too by matching your needs and goals with a creative who believes in what you do.

There is an awful lot of talk about design for good.  As designers and creatives we can volunteer our services to any number of worthy causes with the hope of making our world a better place. There are notable organizations such as Design for Democracy, Arts Advocacy, The Living Principles, Design Ignites Change and so many others.  Additionally, much has been written and discussed about the unique thought processes of designers and artists, and how creatives can bring renewed and out-of-the-box problem solving to a number of issues for both private and public concerns. This is all good and true. I support Design for Good . . . but somewhere I think we are missing a link. Somewhere along the line, we have forgotten and neglected the essential elements within ourselves that are required before we can truly give to others. Stress has left it’s mark on all of us.

I receive many notices from art organizations and galleries which masquerade as press releases. Today I received a press release from an fairly well established gallery. The email was without a subject line. There was no content in the body of the email, it wasn’t addressed Dear Lisa or Dear Press Editor, and there was simply an attachment without explanation. This happens a lot. I hit delete.

Sometimes I get two, three or even four emails from the same organization in the course of a week . . . sometimes even within 24 hours. I generally stop reading at this point because they are approaching spam. One of the first things I learned in PR was . . . Don’t piss off the press!  No one benefits from this. As such, I thought it might be time to take a look at the proper way to write and distribute a press release.