All you need is love

Sheesh, if we'd known that launching a website would be this gratifying, maybe we would have actually done it sooner! (Ha, ha.) Both Erin and I have truly been humbled by the incredible outpourings of support and praise we've been fortunate enough to receive. And for those who know me personally, moments of humility are rare indeed .... heh.

In addition to generating some thrilling new business ventures and plenty o' meetings, our web launch has made us the happy recipients of everything from gushing emails to pink rose bouquets. Today's latest vote of confidence comes from our friends at Grandpa George, a wonderful — and fun — design and interactive studio right here in the Twin Cities. Thanks, gents!

And now .... back to work. We're tickled pink (pink, of course) that we've managed to complete not one but two drafts of major projects days ahead of schedule.....many thanks to caffeine, late nights, and tasty lunches prepared by those dearest to us. After so many projects involving consulting, art direction, concept development, and publication planning, it's been fun to get back to actual writing ..... it is, after all, how we got into this crazy business to begin with!

Creative mis/direction

It's only Tuesday, but with all the work we've already done this week, it feels like it should be Thursday at minimum .... Friday if the Fates were kind. Alas. Working on a tight deadline is, we find, great for our creative energies and our productivity, but it can mean that our sleeping cycles take a hit!

So in the interests of levity, we thought we'd share a funny with y'all. As society's recent infatuation with Mad Men underscores, people seem fascinated by the notion of what it means to be a creative director. (For a running tally of Draper-related ephemera, check out the news feed on our Facebook fan page!) It would appear that the role of creative director is shrouded in mystery. I know this was true for me when I first started in the biz. What is the je ne sais quoi that gives one both the visual eye and strategic understanding to conceptualize ideas and turn them into something tangible? (I don't know, believe me. I'm just of the mind that you have it or you don't, and the distinction tends to be painfully clear.)

For those that fall into the latter category, cliche often replaces creativity when developing concepts and preparing comps. That's why this gave Erin and I the giggles ..... particularly because, in a few cases, we've actually seen in use the very stock photos provided as examples of what not to do. Heh! Needless to say, you'll find no such travesties in a Crazy Savvy presentation.

In other news, today's postcard arrives all the way from South Africa. It even contains a pearl of marketing wisdom .... thanks for the shout-out, Kate!

Weekend Round-Up

For those of you not in Minneapolis, I feel it is imperative to share with you this simple joy: sunlight and (a modicum of) warmth returned to our fair city this weekend.

And it was glorious.

(Hmmm, perhaps I should be making a mental note to research full-spectrum lights and Vitamin D as winter approaches?)

The mavens of Crazy Savvy did not squander this opportunity to be outside without suffering, let me assure you. This being Minnesota, we had to get in some quintessentially fall activities while we still could. Scenic drives were savored, fall colors admired. Pumpkins were picked, hayrides heartily enjoyed.

As Jen mentioned on Friday, we also had a number of business tasks to attend to this weekend, the most enjoyable of which had to be attending the incredible volunteer appreciation event put on by one of our clients. Not only was it a ton of fun, but it's great to see an organization with such a thriving volunteer effort. Kudos for doing it up right, L!

After some sunlight and fresh air, we are hitting the ground running this morning, crossing items off our to-do list in a flurry (dare I tempt the weather gods by even using that word?) Three cheers for work/life balance....

Busy signal

Dear Jamaican Postal Service,

How is it that you manage to lose my mail? You're making me look bad, mon! After promising my darling business partner that I would set a good example for our blog fans and be sure to mail a postcard from Negril .... the post office has to go and lose my letter! And it was a dang good letter, too! Now I get the sads every time I check our PO Box and don't find my palm tree-and-sandy-beaches card awaiting me. (Then again, with Minneapolis weather lately, perhaps this is a mercy in disguise.)

Sincerely, Jen

OK, digression over. What a week it's been for us here at C/S headquarters! Phew. Just getting our website launched, blog template updated, and social media platforms in visual step with our brand has been a rather gargantuan task (though certainly a labor of love). Add to that our writing of a major proposal and cover-to-cover content for a client project, and sheesh! It's a busy agenda indeed. And no rest for the wicked, apparently, because we have photo shoots and more over the weekend, too.

Still .... we wouldn't want it any other way. Idle hands may or may not be the devil's playthings, but they're certainly no good for business. While we may have a lot to do, it's certainly fun stuff — intellectually stimulating, visually interesting, strategically nuanced. Plus, it keeps us indoors, out of the rain/sleet/snow/general nastiness that is October in Minneapolis.

Still, happy weekend to our beloved fans, and if you're lucky enough to have some time to relax ..... do a little relaxing on our behalves, too!

Jargon-Free Zone

The accolades keep rolling in on our revamped website. Thanks to everyone who has dropped us a line (or sent us flowers) in celebration!

As Jen and I wrote our business plan (and our website copy, natch) this summer, we spent some time getting down to the nitty gritty of what distinguishes Crazy Savvy from other communications and marketing agencies.

At Crazy Savvy, we’re writers first and foremost. We appreciate the value of clear communication. Working with us, you’ll never sit through an “ideation session.” We’ll never explain strategy in terms of “dimensionalizing paradigms” or “synergizing core messaging.” No thank you!

Not only do Jen and I recoil in the face of unnecessary jargon from a style and usage perspective, but we also reject the notion that a consultant must speak in acronyms and jumbled doublespeak in order to be effective. To the contrary, we believe hiring a communications consultant should give a client an objective perspective, nuanced insight, and a wealth of professional experience — all in a format that is actually accessible...and meaningful.

At Crazy Savvy, we’re quite fluent in English (and Russian, and Spanish…) and we express ourselves accordingly. After all, words are infinitely more interesting (and useful!) when paired with actual meaning.

AT LAST ..... Live from Minneapolis

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for ..... the official launch of our Crazy Savvy website!

Check us out and share it with a friend .... or two .... or twelve.

We always love to hear your feedback!

Hope you enjoy the Crazy Savvy web experience as much as we do.

It's like Christmas in October (in so many ways)

We promised this week would be chock full of excitement, and here at Crazy Savvy we keep our promises. Notice any changes? Why, yes! Our blog template is finally updated! Hallelujah!

How exciting to finally reveal our logo publicly. It's been complete for months, but we forced ourselves to be patient (a difficult task for some of us here ....!) and wait until we'd developed a more comprehensive brand identity. I can say with confidence that it's been worth the wait.

Our identity system draws its inspiration from the duality of crazy and savvy. The juxtaposition of the words suggests both dichotomy and synthesis, challenging the perceived paradox between crazy and savvy, creative and strategy, form and function, that lies at the very heart of our approach. (More on this concept later, I assure you.) Our logo and mark feature custom typography from Mucca Typo (thank you, Matteo!), which was then tweaked and stylized by our superb design team. Put simply, we couldn't be happier.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows us that we were both intimately involved in the selection of our color palette .... but there is a method even to this particular form of madness. If you were to link our identity colors to their corresponding concepts, you'd likely pair pink with crazy (ahem, ahem) and grey with savvy, yes? Hah, but look again! Even the color selection forces viewers to challenge their assumptions — something we are all about here at Crazy Savvy.

And our tagline — "we put thought into action." Well, we may be biased, but it sure is satisfying to come up with a line of copy that manages to convey so precisely what it is we do, both literally and figuratively. In other words: writing w-i-n.

But for every win, there must be a corresponding fail .... it seems to be a fundamental law of physics or something. Today's fail is unequivocally the weather. Mother Nature .... what's up? What did we do to make you hate us so? Waking up to 4 inches of snow (and counting) in early October ..... scraping my car in open-toed patent leather shoes .... driving through slush on the way to work .... Eliot was wrong, my friends: April is not the cruelest month. October is. This winter wonderland would be apropos around the holidays, but now? I think not.