If there is one thing I can pass along on this post, it's a theory I call the "appleswoosh" effect. Its when a company’s logomark doesn’t directly correlate to the things they produce. Its more about their products, core values and beliefs that make their icon, an icon. Nike used a checkmark. Apple, a fruit. My point is -- is that sometimes we spend too much time justifying our logo designs, and don’t realize it’s only a third of the equation. This isn't very conducive to any forward momentum of our company.

In the diagram above there are three pillars that make up a company: The Icon, Brand & Product. I’ve represented them through sketches we can relate to. The icon is the face of the company. Regardless of how attractive you are, we rely on the heart to determine your brand. These are things such as: your attitude, personality and values. The sum of it all is what society consumes, the product.

As much as I am excited to fill this blog with product. Firstly, it'll be fun to touch on the logo I designed and the inspiration around it. Yes, it's ironic I encouraged you to not spend much time on your logo, but you should still care about its origins. Keep good design practices, but avoid spending way too much time justifying the design so you don't rabbit hole yourself and move on.

I knew I wanted this blog to be about adventures on the motorcycle. There are so many places I want to check out, in and around California. Ho°Bo° is the perfect excuse to ride and explore. When designing the logo I drew inspiration from things related to: location, geography and traveling. I chose the final logo because how extensible the longitude & latitude concept is, and I love its application. Imagine Ho° & Bo° replaced with coordinates relative to my adventures. Would you be curious about where I went? There's something compelling about tracking down mysterious coordinates to me that I encourage the stalker in you to agree. Especially if I presented them to you like this:

Below are a few more sketches to tease your appetite. Enjoy them as I enjoyed quickly sketching them.

I feel it's appropriate to start blog post # 1 with a song. It's not a opening ceremony without music and balloons. Truthfully, I stole the "H" while at a wedding last weekend, and to tie the song together . . . well, maybe it's about how much Bentley & the Bonneville loves me better. HAHA

There's something wildly appealing about looking back a year from now, and giggling at the music I was into. Beyond It's comedic value, music is one way I track memories. I don't know about you, but I feel like I have an incredibly limited brain, either I'm thinking too hard, and burning up too many brain cells, or have banged my head one too many times. Whatever the reason, I'm treating this site as Hoang's journal and not a Creative Session thing.

As a kid I've always been into motorcycles. I owned two others and a scooter before I bought the Bonneville. My biggest regret is that I didn't document any of the other bikes. No adventure photos, customization photos, or riding videos - nothing. With the Bonneville I want to capture everything and share it here. Hopefully, I don't get rid of the bike anytime soon, because HoBo would be very short lived.

I'll be sharing more on the Bonneville in a few days. But for now enjoy the balloon in the wild on this inauguration day.