Ideas

I came late to my man crush on the Glass Artist, Dale Chihuly. My buddy Bob Tankersley has been enamored with Chihuly for over ten years, but I can only claim an infatuation starting this year.

I purchased a DVD entitled 'Chihuly in the Hotshop', and was completely entranced with his process even more than his glass blowing. The DVD captures some scenes from the Tacoma Museum of Glass, where Chihuly had assembled some of the greatest names in glassblowing from across the world for a week of teamwork and glassblowing.

Chihuly was one of the founders of the Pilchuck School of Glass in Washington State. In the DVD, one of his teammates (Flora Mace) is speaking of that early experience at Pilchuck... 'I'm glad I was there because there was so much energy. We were all working together to try to execute our ideas, and the ideas were the most important things, and we just got to use glass. We made, because of the group of us, we made more interesting work. It wasn't about the craft of it, it was about the idea of it.'

I loved that, because I deal with clients all day long who rarely stop to consider the idea first and foremost (and it is THEIR idea). Peripetee is a storytelling company, and we are constantly thinking about the best way to bring the client's story to a broader audience. The client is always looking at the colors in the logo, or the placement of the logo, or the pictures on the web site. And it is always about what they like. Not about the idea, the story, what we are trying to bring to the world. But the reality is, the IDEA is what matters...the idea is the mortar that holds all the bricks of branding and name and logo together.

Chihuly has consistently explored new forms and new approaches to blowing glass, because he always remembers that even more important than the craft, IS THE IDEA!