satori ethos: becoming aware of inner genius

For the past week I have been wrestling with God over two words. One being Satori, a Japanese Buddhist term meaning "enlightenment" or "understanding". The second word, Ethos, a Greek word originally meaning "accustomed place". Ethos forms the root "Ethikos" meaning "the state of being" - the inner source, soul, mind. According to the Oxford Dictionary it is defined as "the characteristic spirit, prevalent tone of sentiment, of a people or community; the genius of an institution or system"...

Satori Ethos, becoming aware of inner genius ...

Today I was in Church listening to my Mentor, Life Coach and Spiritual Father Dr. Victor L. Powell and it's like all of the dots started connecting together in my mind. I was first introduced to the word Satori about 4 years ago. And since then I have tossed it around loosely in various ways. It was not until the last 7-9 months once I received the word Ethos that Satori started to have meaning beyond it's surface structure. Satori alone is a very powerful idea however; when coupled with the word Ethos - we start to see a deeper idea, Satori + Ethos or "becoming aware of the inner genius of an organization". Dr. Victor L. Powell talked today about Leadership. He talked about how as Leaders we have to know the gifting(s) of the people around us to leverage the gifts properly for the purpose of creative project manifestation. Something that was striking to me, something that he said that absolutely blew me away was the idea that the problem, many times, is not the recognition of the gifts, the problem is the individual understanding his or her own gifts, in other words - knowing what THEY are designed to do...


So what if, just what if we could all understand what we were designed to do? What if we were all grounded in our purpose? What if we knew, without a shadow of a doubt what our roles are in the earth? Dr. Powell asked the question .. "Do you know what you were designed to do..." I thought about this for a second... I know what my gifting is, I have been blessed with a early understanding that I am a Designer. I think creatively without effort, I can look at just about any problem through the lens of design and manifest creative solutions. I am indeed a Designer. However; me knowing what I am designed to to has very little impact on the collective whole if the people around me do not know what they are designed to do. For example...

Say I have an idea for a new way to execute church services and my desire is to design this idea, manifest it into the earth. If I need administrators, that can execute the ideas that I develop I need the people who have the "inner genius" or "gifting" for administration to be rooted in what THEY are designed to do. If there is a graphic design element to the idea, I need the Graphic Designers to be grounded in their "inner genius" or "gifting" ... IF all of the parts are not working together, there is a great chance that my design will fail.


Designing or even leading from the strengths of many has a huge upside; however this upside has no effect if the "many" are clueless to their "inner genius" ... This is where Satori Ethos comes into play... I really feel that if a Life Development Coach type would dig deeper into this single idea, the idea could open new doors to collective innovation at many different levels...

-----

[+] Open Ideation - Satori Ethos for the organization - Discovering the inner genius of an organization 

[+] Open Ideation - Satori Ethos for the individual - Discovering the inner genius of an individual

design + function: iPhone protection

Barely_there_front

(above) Casemate - Barely There case (front)

Everyone in my immediate circle understands my addiction for iPhone cases. I am absolutely obsessed with finding the right combination that ill not only protect what I feel is one of the most effective designs of the last 7 years, but also the combination that preserves the design.

As a Carrier of the first generation iPhone, NOW the iPhone 3GS I have used at least 25 - 30 different cases, all in the pursuit of finding that perfect balance of design and function. With my iPhone first gen, I discovered an Atlanta based company called Casemate. I settled on a leather fixture from this company that bought what I felt was a perfect balance. So in my quest for the perfect combination for my iPhone 3GS I returned to common ground, Casemate.


Casemate Stealth screen protector and the Barley There matte black case. Perfection.


After trying a few different combinations I discovered that the Barely There case gave me exactly what I was looking for. The Barely There gives just the right amount of body coverage, while the Stealth screen protector not only provide premium coverage for the face of the iPhone (screen), BUT it also offers a unique privacy feature that keeps "peering eyes" out of your text conversations and browsing endeavors ...

Barely_there_back

(above) Casemate - Barely There case (back)

I really enjoy the idea of the logo cut-out provided by the back of the Barely There case - for the "brand fan" this is a HUGE plus, because the case allows you to protect your device, while maintaining the brand integrity - HUGE plus for me...

Stealth_screen_cover

(above) Casemate - Stealth screen protector

The Casemate Stealth "system" includes not only this incredible privacy screen protector BUT it also includes an adhesive back that adds ZERO mass to the body of your device, giving "naked device carriers" a huge alternative to just going absolutely naked (leaving the device prone to scratches and scuffs). I elected NOT to use the adhesive back, because I am pretty much spoiled by the Barely There case.

Conclusion ...


In all of my experimentation - this combination seems to be the ideal one for the individual who loves the design of their device, does not like bulk, and want to protect from the daily wear and tear of life.

Casemate

http://case-mate.com

Stop looking at the competition and start focusing on possibilities

For a long time I have battled with the idea of "building a better mousetrap". Fact is, I really feel like we have enough mousetraps. When I walk into the average electronics store - I can clearly see the problem with "build a better mousetrap" mentality. Shelves FULL of mousetraps, or in other words - the same "old stuff" with shiny new packaging. Building a better mousetrap mentality generally stems from the idea of "competition" and not "possibility" ...

Stop looking at the competition and start focusing on possibilities

Always trying to "out do" or "be better than" your competition will lead to incremental innovation, looking at the possibilities gives you new territories to explore, new questions to ask, and new products, services and brands to create... Maybe THIS should be the saying that we use...

"Stop building mousetraps and start breeding new mice...'

Create new markets, find new customers, carve new niche opportunities.

Where most businesses stay when it comes to innovation

Tightrope-walker

With each business leader that I talk to about innovating and being creative within their organizations, this is where I find most of them (see the above picture)...

On a tightrope.

Most business leaders focus so much energy into the incremental increases found through "better mousetrap mentality" that they seldom ever reap the true reward found through authentic innovation. This is not only a disservice to the legacy of the business, BUT it is indeed a organizational creativity killer. We have to find a perfect balance between innovation and number chasing.

Truly innovative companies do not spend much time considering competition instead the spend time considering "possibilities". Apple spent time wondering about the possibilities of a device that would replace not only the cell phone, but the Mp3 player and the laptop in one clean sweep and they just about did it with the iPhone... The iPhone started as a possibility.

It's the possibilities that separate incredible design from good design. It's the possibilities that make tomorrow a better place.

Design Idea: Design towards possibilities and not the competition. Find that perfect balance between number crunching and authentic innovation... As fast as you can.

On Air With Xavier: On Air Graphic Concepts: WFXL FOX 31 (Redesign)

Just finished uploading a series of concept images that I have been working on for WFXL FOX 31 Albany, Georgia. The series is called "Xavier" and consist of the "on air" graphics that are used in the nightly newscast. The work is under the creative direction of Josh Boutwell, FOX 31 WFXL's Marketing Director, and Terry Graham the stations News Director.

Project: On Air With Xavier

Project Host:
WFXL FOX 31 - Barrington Broadcasting

Designer: Vincent Hunt

Creative Direction: Josh Boutwell, Terry Graham

Project Link:
On Air With Xavier