Why I am Deciding to be THE NEW NIGELLA

Nigella might be feeling sheepish for a while and yes she is incredible, but after reading about her recent events and with all due respects I think I should step in for her while she recuperates.

Why? I am a a whizz in the kitchen, love body conscious clothing,we are both brunette, neither of us are beanstalk thin nor shy. I can waffle on endlessly about flavours and use double entredre like toppings and sprinkles too. I can marvel at the texture of Mango or an Avocado endlessy.

My love of food and colour is quite perfect, but it does have to compete with my love of fashion - often vintage and my on going affair with gaudy jewellery, I only wear real plastic - I like it big and obvious!

Her affectation might be refined and British while mine is a more little textured, omnivore and somewhat eclectic. The new digs will look like this...I can just imagine the kitchen, the aromas, carpets, there has to be mauve faux fur somewhere and some kinky tap/faucet fittings - I can wear flimsy fabrics and drip everything on my chest, drink and play my sterio, dance and if I am having a really great time I might forget and burn the food - it will be great!

Life in Lemon Yellow” | Artist: Jen Zahigian | Palm Springs, CA

I sure hope it has a pool - Bon appetite!

Why bad food is so interesting

Mental Hiatus & Work

I am having an unofficial hiatus of sorts...

I am still here, I am just possessing a different kind of head space and taking the opportunity to hone some of my skills.

The Janome is gathering dust - but I have just recently purchased some wildly exciting fabric so perhaps I will be designing and creating on the physical plane shortly. Think Gidget.

For now however I am working on 2D. In love with shiny cars designed within an inch of their own believe-ability scalloped in sensuous chrome I decided to have a crack and illustrating a car. A 1969 Chevrolet Impala to be precise.

Original Image

'Super Grande' Illustration

My boobs and a Coffee...

Boobs...ahh the lost art of language.

Corffee as said by Carmela Sporano

"Tony you wanna corffee?

"Corffee " by Lisa Defazio | Redbubble: 

I have plans for more and more...

have a happy week folks!

What Does Your Brand Smell Like?

A BRAND?

A brand should be a clear statement.

Laser focused intent.

Not vague, unfocused or unclear.

Your brand must be consistent.

Your brand no matter what it might be must be CLEAR FOCUSED CONSISTENT. The focus on a brand or label is often the target audience or demo graphic - this is the tried and tested formulaic standard.

This is not clear enough. Your brand, label or 'signature' must personify what your business, product or service is.

Lets explore that notion in more detail : Personify

per·son·i·fy/pərˈsänəˌfī/

Verb:

Represent (a quality or concept) by a figure in human form. Attribute a personal nature or human characteristics to (something nonhuman). Your label must practically breathe. It must be 3 dimentional today. Its more than a notion of a type of person, of a particular age leading a specific lifestyle. That is very rudimentary and might have stood its ground in the less sophisticated past - as delightful and uncomplicated as they may have been. Although there are some very clear leads and exacting if not perfect examples that were set which I will address later in this piece, lets first explore the idea of your 'brand' personified. Is your brand a woman or a man, is it short or tall, muscular, fair, manicured? Does it sink or swim, is it rugged or refined, whats their garden like? Think about it. What would your brands rituals be? Up at 6am to work a farm or ski? Is it dutiful and kind? Is it sexy and svelte, chubby and cute. Where and how does it walk - or indeed strut? Perhaps it rides?  To have a totally Clear, Focused, Consistent vision you would want to entertain your labels diet. This may sound at first ludicrous but the more exacting you are with this the more precise your message will be and the more successful your marketing message will be. Ever met someone who is inconsistent, someone who cant hang their hat on one idea or thing...confusing isn't it? No matter how patient, kind and clever you might be it does your head in. Its hard work. What about the consistent person - what do they offer you? I am not talking about bland or boring - but you know who they are, what they are about, what motivates them what makes them shake! What makes them shake quake and want to copulate? You must know these things. Lets flick back to iconic 1970's advertising. What did this guy eat drink and do? I can tell you know he didn't use men's grooming products, would never even consider sushi, live in a modernist home or care what his postcode or zip code was. But we can imagine what is important to him and what his rituals might be... and... we can even imagine his smell! Earthy, sexy.  Get it?

The inspiring Tony Robbins

>>> The Pain Growth Resistance Game <<<

I have recently spent some time reacquainting myself with some self help guru's...

stick with me.

It is interesting how life can knock you off course. For myself I had a firm instinctual vision of what I was going to achieve and the arrogance of youth (which is to be cherished) I had an unshakable belief in what I was going to achieve. It was so certain so determined in my life path that there was no question - it just had not occurred yet.

25 years later...

I am closer than I have ever been to achieving that than ever but the path I took was unforeseen and was incredibly difficult terrain. My limits were tested on every level in regards to resourcefulness. Every level. The path was convoluted and enjoyable but lead me far off course and very far from my initial goals, strangely enough however after a very turbulent period I have washed up on a shore in the place I have always wanted to be.

Now my wee brain has to catch up.

Sometimes we are 'fitter while in the fight' another term I have coined. We are on guard, at the ready, defences up, alert, hyper vigilant and not missing a thing. All our senses are engaged.

Whether the battle be a personal, professional, financial, physical, emotional, psychological one - it usually is never a solo one usually they are at least paired the battle itself for the most part exists inside.

Sometimes the battle goes on so long that once we have left that place our emotions or state want to wrestle us back inside the not so great trenches. The battle ceases to be one created from external forces and it becomes one we must firmly decide. Through habit the mind wants to be back in the trenches - what a waste of time.

Some people seek the same issue out so they never have to put the 'rock of pain' down, they just change rocks...the same experience in a different guise. Self sabotage and repetitious self flagellation - a comfortable or at least familiar 'head fellow'.

Speaking of 'head fellow' - yes another of mine, it is the same as bed fellow, who you chose to lay down with at night and wake up with is always the mind. Your head fellow can be your best friend love and nurture you or berate and second guess you. So I ask you what head fellow would you willingly befriend if you met them? Who would you make your friend? The one that wants to drag you into a mental trench or the one that reminds you to watch your step keep away from the muddy rut?

Honestly if I could book into a clinic or hospital for a day procedure to rid me of any negative thought or habit I would - I imagine it as small as a pea. Tell the doctor to whip it out!

Like I said I am so close to my dream there is no point in engaging the negative but occasionally it comes back. So why would an intelligent person find it so difficult to put the Pain rock down, cut out the black misery pea? Mind you some people have misery rocks and they make love to them they carress and entertain them, they cant live without them and as silly as it may sound some people just cant expel that 10mm misery pea - WHY?

Simple they need to make friends with their head fellow and the person you cant avoid yourself.

I never saw myself as a loser or a person who does ill towards other nor do I consider myself selfish, I am altruistic and kind. I am a giver, a lover, a nurturer, creative. I am expressive, resourceful and at times after my long convoluted journey recall in my mind that arrogance of youth and am just as certain that I am making it happen.

Sometimes the pain before the break through - before we give up on treating ourselves badly can be excruitiating before we can 'put it down' and move on, we are afraid there is a reluctance and fear - what will you hold on to if you place the pain down and walk away, what if you give up wrestling with yourself, what then?

You HAVE to face yourself - but you just might like what you see.

Tony Robbins on Google +
This is quite a long clip and examines why it was hard for these individuals to cut out the peas, put down the rocks and some were phenomenally substantial and deal with the pain associated with growth.





 

:::Mr Burns Mates with the 50 foot tall Woman!:::

Imagine a giant, glowing, lumbering presence walking across your city.

Think Attack of the 50 Foot Woman / Mr Burns when he was radio active repeating 'I love you'... over and over again.

Today that's effective marketing.

Its stunning, slightly absurd, large, enters on a large scale and you cant ignore it. The gigantic penetrative Marketing Campaign.

Today's marketing needs an edge. There is on on going cut and paste derivative trend;

Hokey folkey warmpth, soft edged marketing. Think Sportsgirl, Portmans, Cocolatte, even Johnston and Johnston are going that way, from pasta to car manufacturers spouting tales of generational allegiance to their brands including Barilla and Volvo.

Cocolatte - I don't think these girls were at Woodstock.

Then there is the twee self effacing campaign think iinet and Buzz Insurance.

Does mocking yourself/the company make the campaign more successful?

Pre on trend Viral marketing, online social networking positioning, Hipper than hip so now it hasn't happened yet and very individual...to see a hard copy version the free VICE magazine Melbourne it is a perfect example of this niche platform and can be found at indy haunts and cafes. For the informed its blatant and completely transparent - I am sure it works.

What is interesting is that it all still leans heavily on the visual. So the Artistic Director and Photographer are pivotal - so some things don't change.

There is the sound bite that can rocket an unknown artist to stardom - anything associated with an Apple product is testament to that big. Brand + tune  (hand in hand) = a vertical market. Sure the multi faceted campaigns have to hit the mark from every angle but god what a perfect trade it creates.

So lets face it we all have to be a bit of a 'Radioactive 50 foot tall Mr Burns hermaphrodite' in the ad sense these days. The world just keeps getting savvier and the white noise of commercial competition louder, deafening us now. So how does one stand out from the crowd?

I might take a swan dive off the perceived common reality board into an altogether unplumbed depth... called genuine sincerity.

Image from a very personal shoot I directed with Paul Louis Villani a brilliant photographer

Currently I am marketing myself as a brand here on my blog and what is my Unique Selling Proposition?

I rely on two plain and simple rules: 

• I mean what I say and say what I mean. 
• The content is genuine its my own perspective.

We all have a unique set of reference points that we filter everything through - as do businesses, companies, and or individual staff / departments that purvey the message.

Not quite 50 feet tall in a gown I have made.

We know and hear sincerity on a very base instinctual level - even if it is in the guise of super slick marketing, sometimes we get it - it gets us in reality and the bond is set.

Otherwise its just white noise.

Image reference for last two photographs here