GROWING UP SALTY IN COEUR D"ALENE IDAHO

Starting a business has been one crazy endeavor. People have a whole lot of experience with it and tell all sorts of stories, but it's like becoming a parent, you can't really know until you're there.

I'm not going to blather on about what it's like being a business owner. What I'm going to hurl out at this point is some of the surprises and frustrations that have come along since we opened our doors a little over two years ago.

Choosing Coeur d'Alene to start in was more out convenience than anything else. We had a small office space already secured that was ridiculously affordable, Jeff and I were already working in town and we liked it here.

We knew that the type of business we wanted to build, one that didn't compromise on quality and fought for great design on all projects, would be tough in a smaller market, but we thought it could find a place here. There are people who have companies that would budget for this sort of thing, right? Yep, there are some. But most don't.

And they don't have to. There are plenty of places that will design logos or fliers, brochures and websites, ads and for literally nothing. At first I think to myself, well there is a need for that because some people just don't have the money to invest in a real solid brand or effective advertising. They need someone to help them. But that's just it. They are not helping them. These hack shops, publications and TV stations are not helping anyone, even themselves. The reason the world frowns upon a world inundated with advertising is because most of it is awful, insulting, repugnant. misleading and assaulting to the senses. It heaps up the awfulness so even quality work is rapidly rejected once it's recognized to be promoting something.

They create an unrealistic expectation that quality design doesn't need to cost anything. "Why use you?" Joe consumer asks, "when I can get a logo from RockinGrafX for 50 bucks?" or "The newspaper will design my ad for free. How much do you charge!?" So go to them and heap up more unrecycleable garbage the landfill I think in a moment of anger. And then I simply get sad. There are so many good designers out there, a lot of great little companies, some bigger ones too, that struggle and fail simply because the industry has been depleted of validity by ignorant and low-balling hooligans.

We earn awards, but we really want is to earn money. To be able to have a business that pays the bills and allows us to do something we love. That we think we are good at. That really can benefit other business, the community and even the world.

So welcome to the Salty blog. It's all very spontaneous. Sometimes happy, sometimes angry. Sometime right, Occasionally wrong. Always honest.