Yesterday we opened up the Reclaim Store for the first Reclaim Hosting t-shirt to date. I’m sure there will be more, but this is our first, limited edition run that will only be open until next Friday, April 15th. After that we’ll place the order and send the shirts out to folks, along with some other goodies. As Lauren noted in her blog post about the t-shirts, we are doing this run is to celebrate the launching of Reclaim Hosting’s new aesthetic on the site.
I couldn’t be more excited about the creative work Bryan Mathers has done for us, and as Martin Weller reminded me yesterday, that relationship happened almost a exactly a year ago in Barcelona:
@jimgroom @ReclaimHosting love the @BryanMMathers logo. I like to think I was there at the start of that beautiful friendship
— Martin Weller (@mweller) April 8, 2016
In fact, he even had visual evidence of the very moment Bryan was drawing our logo 🙂
@jimgroom @ReclaimHosting @BryanMMathers captured pic.twitter.com/Z88MQLn1DW
— Martin Weller (@mweller) April 8, 2016
I have to admit I am totally loving this project. Deep down I have a whole lot of used car salesman and marketing douchebag in me, I work hard to repress these impulses. That said, it has been a blast to be able to roam free and imagine a metaphor for Reclaim Hosting that captures the spirit—and what I am hoping is the reality for folks who host with us—of our services. We provide a small, specialized approach to hosting in the context of education. We focus on an ethos of empowerment and back it up with stellar support. And while we by no means limit our customers to the realm of education, we recognize that’s our strength and we play to it. I’ve had no shortage of satisfaction working with Tim and Lauren to build Reclaim Hosting into a small, targeted business folks can and do rely on, and I think the imagining of an aesthetic/metaphor and the framing it around an ethos has given me by far the most joy. Reclaim Hosting #4life!
The “used car salesman” thing has been bugging me since I first read it, Jim. It made me think of my own self and my shameless promotion of things I am passionate about…and I know it seems umm not very “classy” or something to some people… But it’s also very different from a used car salesman. You know why? Because a used car salesman is selling you something because you are useful to them not because you have a shared passion for cars. I think the kind of enthusiasm you (and I, i made this personal) have for what we do and advocate for is more of a passion for something that we care about and we are promoting it to others who care about it….not because of benefit.
Although now that you actually work fulltime for Reclaim I can see how that argument loses some steam 🙂 but still 🙂 Some companies have a genuine ethos and I think reclaim is one of those.
Now if only you could give me an offer on Reclaim #4life (and death) I would die happy (but now I am off on a tangent)
Maha,
The “used cars salesman” thing for me has a history because when working at UMW I was pretty unabashed at the idea that some folks needed to be sold, and I loved to sell. That said, I agree with you 100%, it is a difference when you believe what you are selling, and I certainly do when it came to my work at UMW and now Reclaim, so like many things on the bava this is said with a certain amount of jest and a wink 🙂
As for #4life, well….
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