It all start with an idea.
Mid to late august of 2021. Lower Michigan got slammed with an incredibly unexpected, nasty storm. I mean sure, I've seen a few crazy storms since residing in Michigan, but I've always kind of joked about how the area I live in is like living the eye of a giant tornado. Plenty of other areas, neighboring towns, homes and even locations in the city I live get hit hard with the brunt force of actual tornados...but I've yet to see anything close to one in this general area.
Even so. When we do get a nasty storm it usually involves a lot of super high winds that rips off shingles, siding and at times...knocks a tree over...or three.
This year, our leaning oak finally said it's goodbyes in our last nasty storm. Toppling over on power lines and breaking a few of our neighbors limbs as well. What was interesting about this whole incident is that only half of the tree actually fell. The other half still stood tall!! Crazy!
Naturally...we knew that was dangerous and it was time to make the whole thing go "...the way of the Jedi" as we say around here XD
Let me tell you...I was really surprised at how difficult it was to find a tree cut company to finish the job. Due to the powerlines, the houses position and the other tree's they all deemed the job "Un-safe" and refused to do it despite us hiking up the price to encourage a contract.
Eventually though we found a family home company that was in need of truck repair money and willing to do the task for cheaper than the professional companies that had big trucks and buckets to raise them up into the branches. Why they couldn't use those buckets to chop the branches off little by little to avoid any "danger" is beyond me... In the end, the home guy went old school. Cig in mouth and shirt removed.. he roped his way on up to the top with a chainsaw and rope at his side and chopped away.
The whole incident happened right around the same time I started completing my first batch of Yin Balm. So when I sat down with the final product in hand, I knew it was time to pick a design that would wrap it all into one all around package. I had several options to choose from, many various attempts in the past with names and logo's I could revive. Just Jedi, Country Charm, GEDI Designs...I have a really bad habit of getting ideas, starting it up and not finishing because I was unhappy with its direction or unsure how to proceed...writers block is a real pain in the neck let me tell you! haha
But then I thought back on the tree, another project to figure out, and it all just sort of came to me.
I loved that tree because the Oak leaves were always super beautiful in the fall. But I needed a little more than just "Oak Leaves" for a logo...what else did I like? Well...that's obvious...Foxes are always at the top of my "love" list!! So a quick browse in google gave me many ideas on fox paw prints and with a bit of time, monster ultra, and soul jamming music I swiftly brought the two together.
While playing with graphics on paint (yes, I mean the super basic art program every computer usually comes installed with, and no...not the new 3D version.) I thought about all the other little projects I've wanted to sell but no platform (or business sense) to follow through on it...The name hit me!! Kitsus Miscellaneous. Kitsus Misc. for short. After that, the creative "Juices" just kept on flowing!!
Well, maybe not that smoothly. Afterall, with every great idea comes hiccups that needs addressing. Like how to make a product tag with the label and not go insane over it!! At first I just stuck with the leaf because...well...I really really like it! But whenever I tried cutting out each jagged little point I could feel my frustrations rising...I mean...eventually I hope to make hundreds of these little cute nuisances!! I HAD to do something to streamline the process. And the only way to do that? Going back to the basics. Squares, Triangles and Circles!! I didn't think a square or a triangle would really work for a leaf...and the circle worked fine but the white background space was juuuuussst......meh. So I pasted the little guy on a bunch of backgrounds and sat back with my thinking cap on.
In the end, it was my life partner that made the suggestion.
Number 5!!
I liked that one two...I mean, I also really loved 4 and 6 but overall I figured number 5 fit the whole theme better and, my partner pointed out, it had a lot of similarities to my personal phoenix logo for an old group I ran at Just Jedi.
So!! That's how Kitsus Misc. and it's Maple Paw Logo was developed! All because of a storm and a big mess still littering my front yard! (Hey, at least it's giving me a lot of really cool backdrop for pictures!! The stump, leaves and acorns you will see in most of my advertisement images are from that fallen tree.
Have a great day and keep smiling!!
- Love, Kit. <(^_^)>
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