brickhouse.cc new banner idea

13 comments:

Posted by creativemindsunion on 2009-12-30 03:06:42:

Overall I see it as a strong visual improvement.. however

As for the old spelling... Please use the name of the site [brickhouse.cc] as the wording.... im thinking that reinforcing the brand label of our discussion site as brickhouse.cc as a visual cue to internet will erase 'the brick house' moniker with questions about if we are brycc or brick

We can stick with the idea that brickhouse.cc is a quick way to say we kept our name but made it easy to find for folks who want to quickly learn more

Getting people to used to seeing the e-link visual as brickhouse.cc makes it easy to remember and also emphasizes the word of mouth power of hearing someone to tell you brycc house community center as a quick auditory response of brickhouse.cc...

Once folks get involved they can see that brycc house is official events in our center and brycc is for events that dont happen in the building but through our funding around town as community partnership initiatives

As for leadership... its a great idea to encourage people to take leadership roles right now is kinda like a joke to people who would see it and talk about our lack of management skills (please dont take it wrong that I think we need to improve our management methods across the board by supporting our leadership with consistency and a few other organizing skills) but the initial concept is very strong...

I do like it...

Posted by frappyjohn on 2009-12-30 03:49:35:

Thanks Paul. As you can see, I went ahead and implemented it. I think it looks great.

Any other graphic elements or just ideas on the layout, color, etc. are welcomed.

• -your brickhouse.cc webmaster

Posted by alexbradshaw on 2009-12-30 14:49:52:

Just curious: does anyone think that the figures in the image represent principles embodied by the Brick? If so, the Brick House is something from which I would distance myself.

The only figures on the image that seem to have any merit are Martin Luther King, Jr., and Che Guevera, with the latter needing to be taken with a large grain of salt.

As for King, he was only able to have a platform because of a bottom-up, participatory movement led cooperatively by the most oppressed people of the United States. Because of student organizations like the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and organized poor and oppressed peoples in the South, the civil rights movement was created and impacted peoples' lives. Important: from the bottom up, not from the top-down due to charismatic figures. I would assume MLK would say the same.

As for Che: he was only a charismatic representative of a grassroots movement of resistance in Cuba to the brutal dictatorship of Batista. However, he turned out to be basically a reactionary once Castro gained power.

The point is that these figures do not seem to represent what I thought the Brick House was about, ie, direct democracy, horizontal decision-making, non-hierarchy, community, etc. If I, and I'm sure, others, took a look at this image, they wouldn't assume any of these things were the case. Politicians? Celebrities? This doesn't say "direct action" to me.

Maybe it's a trivial thing, but I think symbolism is important. But maybe I really don't understand what the Brick is all about, and it's due to my ignorance that this image was a surprise to me.

However, my thoughts were that a community center like the Brick exists as a counter to institutions like the federal government, which have never represented the interests of communities, or economic models that only seek to maximize profit. Perhaps I'm wrong. If anyone could explain to me what the Brick House is, as I seem to need clarity on the issue, I would appreciate it.

Posted by robeysan on 2009-12-30 17:04:22:

These are all good examples of leaders in humanity, I thought these faces would inspire leadership, which is what Brycc needs most right now.

The Principles of Brycc are in a state of change. As new faces are coming around the old principles of Brycc are hidden or unknown.

The faces are of influential men/women oprah winfrey, Hillary Clinton, Neilson Mandela, MLK, Obama, Che and Linclon are all undeniable leaders. The goal of this banner is to encourage new leadership at Brycc and is not a representation of Brycc principles.

Alex if you can lead the research about Brycc principles I encourage you to do so. Then create a new banner that reflects your research. Share your research with us all and make Brycc stronger.

This header in my opinion should be changed again and again for as long as Brycc has new ideas and is a part of new issues. The header should change to reflect these new issues. Currently one of our biggest issues is internal leadership. Next month hopefully this issue will have been resolved some and we can focus on issues that we see in our community not in our organization.

Posted by alexbradshaw on 2009-12-31 11:01:28:

Maybe my response was a bit too critical and it certainly wasn't aimed at you as a personal attack. But I tend to think a community center should represent, for lack of a better term, the underdog. It's like what I was talking about in regards to MLk, Jr.; he was brilliant, compassionate, thoughtful, and nearly revolutionary. It's a shame King has been sanitized by racist revisionist historians and childrens' textbooks. He was actually a pretty radical guy who believed not only in civil liberties for all people, but also economic justice (the latter is almost never discussed because this would be an acknowledgement that MLK was..gasp... a Leftist).

With that said, the reason MLK had a platform was due to the hard work of individuals organizing, people whose names are left out of the history books and documentation. I mean, MLK didn't happen in a vacuum. The movement gave rise to MLK because of people of color in the South taking direct action and civil disobedience, acting illegally in a racist, unjust system, in turn risking everything.

I think these people, the no-names of history, the underdogs whose organizing efforts gave rise to real social change, are the people community centers should represent.

Just some food for thought. If my message came across as scathing or anything, it really wasn't. Appreciate the dialogue Paul.

Posted by robeysan on 2009-12-31 11:07:07:

Alex, no offense taken. I am in agreement that the "underdogs" are left out of history too often. I hope that this banner can attract people like MLK, Oprah, Hillary and Che people who can get us organized and working on common goals that benefit the good of society.

Posted by frappyjohn on 2009-12-31 11:09:54:

On this New Year's Eve, I am thankful that:

• thoughtful civil discourse is taking place on this forum
• someone has finally contributed some graphics for this website :)

Regards, Your webkeeper

Posted by martinlarsen on 2009-12-31 14:48:25:

What about Warren Buffet? Or Michael Bloomberg?

Posted by alexbradshaw on 2009-12-31 14:55:07:

LOL Martin. I was thinking more along the lines of Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and Sean Hannity. Nothing says "Community" like AM talk radio hosts.

Posted by robeysan on 2009-12-31 14:57:27:

or maybe G W Bush, Palin, or Dick

Posted by creativemindsunion on 2010-01-03 13:03:12:

I think folks should look at some of the names and posters in our meeting room across from the art collective room for appropriate leaders... winona laduke certainly sends the messages i am interested in hearing as woman, worker, native and green populist...

wangari maathai certainly also makes me think of good leadership with modern implications...

jimmy carter... nearly impeccable leader in my opinion

ALSO STILL LOOKING FOR THE SIGNAGE TO SAY WWW.BRICKHOUSE.CC

anybody else get my logic on this mast head assisting with branding the discussion site as its own visual/auditory cue?

but thats just a few...

Posted by martinlarsen on 2010-01-04 10:57:55:

I was being serious, guys..

Posted by robeysan on 2010-01-04 13:01:17:

@creativeminds Branding is something we all need to decide on. I had been thinking about just using "BRYCC" and dropping the house part. I won't be editing that header because I want to give others the chance to design one. Although I would like to see it stay as is until we get some leaders heading up more of our unfinished projects. Which brings me to another point, what are the projects that are currently unfinished or not started at Brycc. I hear that you have some art projects that need to get completed. Once I get a list of project, I can put them on brycc.org and try to encourage perople to get involved.

@martinlarsen As I said I wont be making any changes to the brickhouse.cc while there are many good leaders who didn't make it on the banner the ones who are there get the point across just fine IMO.

I consider all issues about this brickhouse.cc header resolved and closed. Consider yourselves empowered to create a new banner at any time. But we all have more important things to tackle at this time.

Thanks

• Paul