Buy This Song: Ben Lee

My head is a box full of nothing
and that's the way I like it
My garden's a secret compartment
and that's the way I like it
Your body's a dream that turns violent
and that's the way I like it
The winter is long in the city
and that's the way I like it

So please baby please
Open your heart
Catch my disease

I was backstage in Pomona
and that's the way I like it
She drank beer with coca-cola
and that's the way I like it
She told me about the winds from Santa Anna
and that's the way I like it
She told me she loved me like fireworks
and that's the way I like it

So please baby please
Open your eyes
Catch my disease

They play Good Charlotte on the radio
and that's the way I like it
They play The Replacements on the radio
and that's the way I like it
I hear Beyonce on the radio
and that's the way I like it
cos that's the way I like it
and they play me on the radio
and that's the way I like it

So please baby please
Open your heart
and catch my disease

--Ben Lee, Catch My Disease

Announcement: Design Matters Now On iTunes

I am thrilled to announce that all of the episodes from my first two seasons of Design Matters are now available as Podcasts on iTunes.

To listen to the Podcasts, you can do one of the following:

1. Subscribe manually, by going to iTunes’ advanced menu, then select Subscribe to Podcast and enter http://www.sterlingbrands.com/DesignMatters/rss.xml as the feed.

2. Simply do a search on iTunes’ Podcast directory for “Design Matters.”

I hope you enjoy, and thank you very much for listening!
: )

Commentary: Why the AIGA gave Pamela Parisi and Gillette an award

(the following are my remarks from the AIGA Design Legends Gala on September 14th in Boston MA)


Innovation is a word that could easily be used to describe The Gillette Company throughout its one hundred and ten year history. In a day and age where the mass media is embracing design and describing a new “creative economy," Gillette has actually been doing it, and has been at the forefront of creative leadership for nearly all of its long history.

Yes, Gillette was the first company to design a safety razor and it was the first company to design a women's razor, a razor with 3 blades and a razor with battery power. But Gillette is a graphic design pioneer as well. I'll elaborate on that in a moment. First, I'd like to talk about how Gillette is a pioneer in another meaningful area, and I’d like to share some personal history with you.

When I started in the packaging and brand design industry, I was struck by the lack of women in senior positions in the business, both on the client and agency side. I was working for a company founded by Alvin Schechter several decades before and our competitors were firms like Duffy Design, Wallace Church, Gerstman+Meyers, Lipson Alport Glass, and of course, Landor. All of these companies had tremendous reputations, and all of these companies were run by men. And when I called on consumer goods companies for their business, I also found that the design directors in the most senior positions within these corporations were also men. There was hardly a woman to be found.

The only woman I could find in any senior design position in any consumer brand corporation was Pamela Parisi, who was then the Design Manager in the Personal Care Division and is now the worldwide Director of Global Design for The Gillette Company. Pamela Parisi was the first woman in the world to have been appointed in a senior design position within a publicly traded corporation, let alone a Fortune 100 company.

Pamela has worked with Gillette for over 25 years. In that time, long before it was fashionable, Pamela brought design to the C-level by focusing real attention on how to use design as a strategic tool within a corporation rather than as a decorative flourish. She brought design to the level of importance within Gillette on par with advertising. She also was the first design director, back in the mid 1980's to recognize the impact the computer would have on our industry. She spent what was then a fortune: $1.3 million dollars to create computer aided design and mechanicals. She also allowed Gillette to be a beta-tester with the Contex system. She created one of the world's first global packaging groups. Pamela is also a maverick and a pioneer as a designer. She is responsible for the graphic identity of the Gillette MACH3 Shaving Systems, and the world’s most successful woman’s shaving system: Venus.

Her influence is vast and wide and her reputation as a design advocate is legendary. She has changed the standards of packaging in the world of fast moving consumer goods and beyond. She has influenced women in two generations and has led the way with grace, dignity, passion, ingenuity and courage. She has been a role model and a trendsetter with a generous and noble spirit. And for that the American Institute of Graphic Arts bestows on Pamela Parisi and The Gillette Company it's highest honor: the Corporate Leadership Award.