This Middle-Aged House, Painted
September 28, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Every year at summer’s end I seem to spend time working around the house. This year I spent time over Labor Day weekend painting. I primed and then recoated the wooden paneling in a foyer/entry area of our home, and repainted the trim around the doors. Then my wife coated the walls using colors that accented the adjacent family room. This was all on the heels of having a contractor install some new tile in the foyer–tile that dated to the home’s creation in the late 1960s.
Most who own a home will recognize this pattern: As the project progressed, it became apparent that other work needed doing.
When I painted the trim that joined the newly repainted paneling with an adjacent wall, the paint on that wall looked dimmer and worn. When I put fresh paint on the the molding for the laundry room door, suddenly the laundry room walls looked drab.
It’s that way with branding too, isn’t it?
When an independent agency successfully upgrades to an agency management system, perhaps its speed makes other workflow seem slower. When an insurance carrier upgrades its e-mail communications, its Web site landing pages need an upgrade too. When an insurance trade association rebrands with a new logo, its member communications call out for attention. Read more
Patriot in our midst
September 21, 2010 by Maureen Wall Bentley · 2 Comments
Kevin Jenné heads for Korea.
Maybe it’s because I grew up during the angst of the Vietnam War—the protests, the POWs, the endless arguments about what it means to be a patriot, to love and to serve your country—that I am always somewhat surprised to hear of someone volunteering for military service during wartime. Whatever the motivation—to get out of a dead-end town, to earn a college education or special training, or simply to make the world a safer place—I’m overcome by that commitment and humbled by the sacrifices made on behalf of all of us.
Yet we see young men and women every day doing just that. What we don’t see as often is a 40-something father of six (and grandfather of one!) returning to active duty after many years of civilian life and weekend reserves.
But that is exactly what Kevin Jenné, Aartrijk’s director of research & strategic insights, is doing. Having recently finished a two-week reserve assignment in Korea, Kevin is now packing up his Seattle-based family for a one- to-two-year assignment as the Strategic Alliance Officer at U.S. Naval Forces Korea in Seoul.
In sharing with our team that he was leaving Aartrijk to accept this assignment, Kevin said, “I do feel compelled to accept this assignment, as there are very few officers who have the background and skill sets needed as the U.S. is dramatically restructuring the alliance with South Korea. It sounds trite when they say, ‘Your country needs you,’ but that is exactly what they are saying.”
We will miss Kevin’s brains and sly wit during his hiatus from Aartrijk, but we couldn’t be more proud of his patriotism. Godspeed, Kevin, and God bless America.
This Old House, Branded
September 2, 2010 by Peter van Aartrijk · 1 Comment
203 North Moetz, Milltown N.J.
Here’s a picture of my house where I grew up in small-town America: Milltown, N.J., near New Brunswick and my alma mater, Rutgers University (photo credit to my home boy Charles Wasilewski).
I remember as a kid helping my dad build the garage addition to the house—off to the right there. The old garage became his office. I remember building snow forts in the front yard to ward off the neighborhood bully. We’d wait for the ice cream truck. We played hide-and-seek and army with stick guns in the yard.
This was the 1960s, man—no Internet, cell phones, computers. Although we did have The Munsters and The Addams Family on beautiful black-and-white TV. Milltown is where I got my start in reporting, working for The Sentinel, a weekly newspaper. That was cool—although the long hours (on, ahem, a typewriter) are what drove me to a somewhat-more-sane business called public relations.