Blue Ocean Yachting: Stickers Seen 'Round the World

Yachting is the dream of many people from around the world. For Luke Hammond--who currently serves as the First Officer on a 171' yacht with a gloal itinerary--it's a way of life. His dream was to fill the need for a global yachting portal on the Worldwide Web with information, news and social networking opportunities serving the global maritime industry.

Towards that end, Hammond teamed up with a younger sibling, who happened to have a background in advertising and design. The website, Blue Ocean Yachting, which was launched Feb 2010, features breaking news on sport sailing, piracy, and famous boats spotted worldwide, among other things--along with social networking, information and resources for the jet set who sail the ocean blue. The business is virtual, but it's based (like so many great luxury yachts) out of Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Hammond's strategy for using custom stickers is simple: he makes sure they get placed in ports and destinations for yachting types all over the world, guerilla marketing style. As of now, you're likely to find stickers for Blue Ocean Yachting all over the Caribbean ports, including Sint Maarten, the British and US Virgin Islands; soon, you'll find them in ports all over Europe.

"Using Custom Sticker Makers was easy and cost effictive," said Hammond. "As well, the stickers came out just the way my artwork had shown them to be."

Learn more at http://www.blueoceanyacthing.com/

Prescott's "Go on Green" Mural, Supported by Custom Sticker Makers

By now, the Prescott, AZ, mural controversy has blown up to national (and even international) proportions.  What's the big flap about this mural, sponsored, in part, by Custom Sticker Makers? A series of remarks made by Prescott City Councilman Steve Blair concerning the "Go on Green" mural at Miller Valley Elementary School, which led the school board to ask the artists involved to "lighten" the faces of those depicted in the mural.

Call it a moment in time, an intersection with small town politics with state- and nation-wide trends (SB-1070, Tea Party, etc.). There's plenty to be said about Steve Blair's remarks concerning the depiction of a child he interpreted as being African-American (who is in fact Hispanic, based on an actual student at Miller Valley) and and plenty already has been.

All of which led to a protest attended by an estimated 500 Prescottonians at the site of the mural on Monday, June 11th, where representitives of the school board publicly apologized and recognized that asking the artists to change the mural was a mistake. It also led to Steve Blair being fired from local radio station KYCA for his on-air comments regarding the issue.

But the side of the story that has failed to reach the media is the reason for and intent behind the mural itself: "Go on Green," commissioned by Prescott Alternative Transportation, with funds from the state of Arizona's Department of Transportation, was created to help raise awareness about an issue of vital importance for Prescott: Safe Routes to Schools for kids.

Is getting to and from school (and around Prescott in general) an issue for local kids? Less than a month ago, on May 30th, the Prescott Daily Courier reports that two brothers (names undisclosed) were crossing a busy intersection at Willow Creek and Iron Springs Road, directly in front of Miller Valley School--one of whom, riding a scooter, was hit by a 82 year-old woman and dragged 30-40 feet before being airlifted to Flagstaff for treatment. His brother, 11, riding a bike, was treated and later released from Yavapai Regional Medical Center. A third boy was apparently uninjured.

"We fully support the Prescott Downtown Mural Project and we support the Go on Green Mural," said Custom Sticker Makers president Jeff Daverman. "Those reporting on the controversy need to look beyond the ignorant comments of a city councilmember and consider what this mural is really about. We need safe, green transportation options in Prescott--for our kids and everyone else, too."

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SB 1070 Sticker Wars! Part 2: Voices from the Right

There's been plenty of furor from all over the country about Arizona's new SB 1070 law. (In case you've been hiding under a rock somewhere, this legislation grants police officers the right to require individuals they suspect may be in this country illegally to provide identification.)

Clearly, however, there are those who support this law. Proponents of SB 1070 cite the serious strain being put on public services in the state of Arizona by the influx of illegal immigrants.The federal government estimates that Arizona has one of the fastest growing illegal immigrant populations in the country--nearly doubling from 330,000 in 2000 to 560,000 by 2008--comprising 8% of the adult population in the state at the time surveyed. As of 2007, the non-partisan Center for Immigration Studies estimated that illegal immigrants and their U.S.-born children comprised one-fifth of those in the state of Arizona living in poverty, one-third of those without health insurance, and one out of six students in the state’s schools.

There are those who see SB 1070 as necessary in the face of federal inaction on the subject of illegal immigration--as in, if the government won't deal with this problem (or provide the funds to address the issues associated with it) then there's nothing for the states most affected to do but take matters into their own hands.

What you see here are just a few of the sticker designs that have come through Custom Sticker Makers in recent months in favor of SB1070.

Glam Spoon: Refashioned Fashion Builds a Brand

Glam Spoon is a one-woman fashion phenomenon with a memorable tag: bohemian chic for women with tenacity.  The passion for fashion (i.e., “chic”) was what led Tina Witherspoon of Seattle to start creating unique clothing for herself and her customers; it was her choice of materials—handmade, repurposed and recycled—that gave her designs their bohemian flare. And it was tenacity that led her to take that creative outlet and turn it into a clothing line now featured at boutiques all over Seattle—and all over the country, too, via the wonders of Etsy.

Since 2005, Witherspoon has been creating one-of-a-kind statement pieces that utilize existing materials—from former prom dresses to t-shirts and scarves—with handmade couture embellishments. (She also offers a unique collection of repurposed and vintage housewares and accessories.) Glamspoon participates in Seattle events and design competitions like CRAVEgreen and Discarded to Divine and works closely with The Green Chair Project, a company 100% dedicated to recycling material of all kinds.

Witherspoon reports that she hadn’t really thought about branding, per se, until she found an image that she liked in the course of designing her 5" custom stickers. They  looked so great on her brown shopping bags that she decided to start using the image everywhere. (Including her Facebook Fan Page.)

Witherspoon reports that she chose Custom Sticker Makers after searching to “the ends of the web” for a simple design tool, reasonable prices and reasonable minimum quantities.  “It was a breeze to use,” she says, “and my designs are saved, so reordering is a snap.”

SB 1070 Sticker Wars! Part 1: Root Concepts Takes on Human Rights

There's been plenty in the news recently about Arizona's SB 1070 immigration law. The law--intended to aid police in identifying and charging illegal immigrants--allows law-enforcement officers to require anyone they might "reasonably suspect" of being in the US illegally to show identifying papers.

Opposition to this bill has been widespread, leading groups as diverse as the American Immigration Lawyers Association to many Major League Baseball teams to join the now near-viral call to boycott Arizona. The bill is believed by many to infringe on the human rights of the citizens of Arizona (and those of Hispanic descent in particular) while clearing the way for state-sanctioned racial profiling.

Of course, there are two sides to every issue--and any hotly contested political topic eventually winds up being debated on the nation's bumpers. Towards that end, our sister company, Root Concepts, recently weighed in on the law with a new design: Repeal SB 1070--Respect Human Rights!

The design incorporates elements of the Arizona state flag, playing on a similar, non-political sticker expressing state pride, common throughout AZ. This makes it a sticker with a clear message: I love Arizona, but I don't support SB 1070.

Root Concepts founder and CEO Jeff Daverman reports, on the Root Concepts blog, "As long time Arizona residents, we thought it especially important to lend our voice in opposition to this unAmerican, unconstitutional law. Our opposition to Arizona SB 1070 comes primarily from the belief that every day this law is enforced the human rights of individuals living in this country will be violated. We believe this law allows law enforcement and those who support it to look at human beings (even if they are 'illegals') in a disconnecting, dehumanizing way."
Interested in the other side of the debate? Stay tuned for our next post, SB 1070 Sticker Wars, Part 2: Voices from the Right.