For the last long while, we’ve had a rotating .gif of our logo up at BadassBackpackpacks.com.
The two tiles of the logo are an optical illusion. If you look closely, just at the two tiles… the one on the left appears to be bigger than the one on the right. But if you switch them around, now the one that was on the right and appearing smaller, is now on the left and appears bigger. The one on the left always looks bigger. But this is an illusion. Both tiles are the exact same size. For our project, Badass Backpacks, there is the art and there is the bag. Which one is it? Art? Or a bag? It’s both, working together to create something completely different and unique. If you take one away, the lonely tile no longer carries with it the tension of the optical illusion. You must have both in order to have Badass Backpacks.
Seth Godin has been writing (and talking) about, “this might work / this might not work”. I absolutely love what he says about it in his audio book, “Leap First“. He talks about: when we create art, we must live with the tension between the two… “not too tight, not too loose”. Our art must contain both. Because both are important. This might work, this might not work. He talks about how the goal is not to banish the “might not work”, but rather to embrace it. It is precisely the “might not work” part of it that completes the picture. Our logo, these two little tiles together, are an ode to this concept… We cannot pull off this grand experiment without the tension created by the very real possibility of two very potential outcomes.
