I am old

I am old. At least by Internet standards.

Well, I did get my AARP card the other day, but that is another stream of consciousness to share with you at another time.

Nonetheless, I have spent my life trying to avoid being closed into a box. I don’t like boxes. I like to think I think outside the box. Boxed in, boxed out. Boxed.

My mother told me just today that it is OK to be in a box. Boxes are good.

Maybe for her. I think, because she is intelligent, creative that maybe if she let herself out of the boxes created by society and family; the boxes designed by those that say “this is what YOU should do,” she would have had a very different life.

Can’t say better. She has obviously done something right. Six children and we all adore her and Dad. So maybe the box worked for her.

But I am not a fan of right angles, square rooms, or furniture without shape. Straight lines are boring.

I like things that are pretty, interesting, thought provoking. And I adore a good commercial. One that gets to the point, but in a way that is clever, or that is just damn good looking. Johnny Depp or George Clooney good looking.

Ads that are sublime and sexy. Sexy, not sexual.

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t have what I think is a great idea for an ad campaign. I have them for bourbon, Chico’s clothing stores, the travel industry – pick an airline, any airline. Hotels. And more. If I could stand working in a cubicle, I might have made myself a Madison Avenue type career.

But we have discussed my disdain for boxes.

Then there is the Internet and the art of branding – of advertising – which has completely changed.

Ads are no longer sexy, or sublime. They are boxy, boring and the brand flavor is lost to just the word. Actually, good marketing has not changed. It’s those folks and their damn boxes that are saying it has changed.

The delivery has changed. But the message should be expanding, not boxing itself in.

And here, in Internet world, the rule I keep reading is to keep it brief.

Don’t say more than you have to. People don’t want descriptive prose. Adverbs are bad. I actually read that if a word has the suffix “ly” on it, it should probably be deleted.

Do things quick, but not quickly. Go and be happy, but do not happily go! May I be frank with you, I frankly don’t give a damn.

Emotion is being replaced by those the revere the 1 and 0 of computer dichotomy.

I hate it.

Which begs the question, why would you choose the Internet to launch Donne Tempo?

There is a list of reasons. The cost, the environmental impact, which is absolutely none as we do everything electronically and the challenge.

The challenge is always the fun part as I am a journey person.

As Donne grows, and as she gets more and more beautiful everyday (thank you Joe!) I am impressed on how pretty the Internet can be used as a medium. That there can be well designed graphics, pages that are more than a bunch of boxes and rectangles.

Donne looks different from everybody else. But it takes a lot of time to get her that way. Poor Joe is stuck in his box – though he has a great window that looks out over the trees and sky. I like to think his creative mind is free of the boxes.

And what he is creating is awesome. We spend a lot of time asking “can we?” “what if?” and then there is the all purposeful “how about.”

He makes all those musing become masterpieces. I adore this cover and layout for the story on Colorado. It makes me want to go back. And stay there. I look at the mountains, and I inhale the cool, clear air all over again.

You can’t do that with a box.

Now reading about how all these “young” folks are using the Internet to brand themselves. They are considered the Turks, the mavericks of the medium. But they are all pretty much doing what everyone else is doing. They are not forging new ground or thinking outside the box.

So it is all pretty much the same. Here a box, there a box, everywhere a box box.

Well, I am old, at least by Internet standards. And I am good with that.

I think Donne Tempo is beautiful and I like that she doesn’t have massive amounts of square little boxes that scream, “click me.”

We want you to stick around, read about where we have been, are going, or want to go.

And the point of this is that I will stick to what I know. The “old” get to be cantankerous that way. I will create a publication that is graphically beautiful, meaningful and that readers can look forward to reading, and coming back and rereading, time and time again.

Just like your favorite magazine. Wait, Donne Tempo is your favorite magazine. At least I hope so.

What do you think?