Perception is a Choice.

Not long after I declined attending Law School [an undergraduate goal] and opted for a Technology Future, I joined the Interactive Division @ Thomson & Thomson; where it was my mission to build a 'virtual community' for the multi-layered client base of the company's Intellectual Property holdings.

Trademarks were the core commodity.  It was my job to find the coalescing electronic [interactive] 'truth' among the law firms; marketers and branding strategists whose use of Thomson & Thomson's services and databases facilitated their specific and collective success domestically and internationally.

Back then, the Internet [the World Wide Web] was @ the beginning of its Timeline.  Projects which had a whiff of high returns [profit] were the way deals / ventures were, generally, structured and dealt.

  In part, my team of computer programmers; graphic artists and veteran in-house database experts were not immune to this 'spirit' of Web Finance / Funding.  What set our work apart, however, were the reputations of brands like Starbucks.

Several years ago, when I received my Gold Corporate Starbucks card, my sense of  having 'arrived' was altered.  My corporate identity [right_hook] had begun years before; post Journalism school @ Columbia University.  When my classmates were entering 'corporate' Journalism I was venturing to destinations uncertain but sound.  My Journalistic passion sustained me; and so did my corporate trademark.

It was obvious to me while @ Graduate School that 'print' was soon to be a 'yesterday'; the future was unquestionably digital.  That was why, in fact, I chose Thomson & Thomson's Interactive Division, as a means to my professional ends.

Advertising, branding had long fascinated me.  So, when I learned that Starbuck's trademark [that green logo prominent on its hot beverage 'sleeves'] was a crowned mermaid [during a passing conversation @ Thomson & Thomson]; my sense of perception shifted.  My new knowledge caused me to look again. . . . at what I had not seen in the first place.

Perception.  In part, it is a choice.  Our speed-driven mobile lives do not inspire pause.  Our smart-phone-driven apps hinge on the opposite, actually.  But slowing down makes our real, just that.      . . . more than transient.  More connected; is Our advertised / promoted aim.  But the verbiage of  21st Century marketing / promotion / branding urges a question : When? When will we give time; make time for what we know. . . . or think we know.

Take a look @ my corporate logo [above].  What do you see?  A mermaid?  Or something nothing like a being from the sea.