The Lead

Just kidding.

The whole light-bulb/left/right brain theme evolved over the past year into a new branding expression for Padilla. But it didn't start there. Like a lot of creative, it started with a sacrificial effort that was off the mark, but a good start -- one of those "something to react to" concepts.

And it was beautiful.

And Lynn looked at it and agreed. It was beautiful. Beautiful, but uninspired.

She was expecting some element of the unexpected . . . because that's what clients expect from us. This led to further discussions, soul searching and research and another expression of what clients expect: "no surprises," as in dependable, professional service. And that presented one of those wonderful dichotomies that leads to cool creative and a new theme: "Something unexpected. No surprises."

The theme articulates what makes us unique, as a firm -- the ambidextrous nature of our nature -- we're buttoned down and focused on results like you'd expect of a planful, research-biased public relations consulting firm. At the same time, we've also got a highly creative side, use every imaginable communications channel and have a ton of fun at work. Which comes from using both sides of our brains or what Lynn calls whole-brain thinking.

At one point we were going to use a brain as the image but it was too literal. Eventually, the light bulb image emerged, with it's hint of a brain inside. And suddenly the light came on. Because our value is not just related to our brains, but what they produce: energy, enlightenment, bright ideas and greater visibility -- as we illuminate our clients' brands. See what you think. Of course, we think it's brilliant!

Now to brighten up this blog a bit . . .