It’s not often you get to work on something that the mere thought of lifts your spirits. But, when Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse reached out to me to work with her and Robert Reich it was the antidote to a year full of crazy politics which seemed completely out of line with humanity.
Robert Reich has been a voice I’ve followed through his time as Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton, as well as his time in the administration of Jimmy Carter. But he became most important to my sanity as a grounded voice on Twitter, and more recently his podcast The CoffeeKlatch which he co-presents with Heather.
Heather had seen my work for Seeker for her brilliant husband Tom and wondered whether I could help her grow the CoffeeKlatch brand beyond the podcast.
As a Professor of Public Policy at Berkeley, Robert has always bestowed the virtue of listening intently upon his students, and as any teacher knows, listening is a rare skill that is much needed in the complex times we all face today.
The idea of Gathering Together to Talk and Listen came from a conversation with film director Elliot Kirschner and Heather. I’d created a campaign for The Guardian with Michael Rusoff about Telling Well — maybe this could be the sister idea, ‘listening better’.
Once the idea of ‘gathering together to listen’ was agreed upon, it seemed obvious to use the C of Coffee as an ear, and the < of the K to indicate the direction of information. The fun was discovering that the Ear and Mouth could be flipped to make a coffee cup.
We could use the two logos to simultaneously mean listening and gathering together to drinking coffee — only using subversion which seemed very Robert.
As we pulled together the form language, it felt like a good idea to be playful with the corporate trappings of big brand Coffee — they talk about bringing people together in a ‘Third Place’ but instead of encouraging listening (they even seem intent to not listen to their own staff) they sell coffee.
CoffeeKlatch could be an ironic coffee brand that doesn’t sell any coffee, but just provides the space, context, and opportunity for people to listen to each other.
I’m such a massive fan of Robert and his teachings which seem more relevant today than ever — but now, I’m also a massive fan of Heather who brings humility and open-mindedness to Robert’s legacy.
I’m so happy to have made this with them.
Team
Marc Shillum — Design, Writing, Animation
Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse — Direction and Concept
Elliot Kirschner — Writing and Direction
Typeface
Universal Sans — Family Type, Briton Smith
Images
Robert Reich — Win McNamee, Getty Images
Jeff Bezos — Spencer Platt/Getty Images Market Watch/Shutterstock
Donald Trump — Jonathan Ernst / Reuters