GROWN: Seva Canada turns 30 years old!

Seva Canada is an international eye care charity which was developed in April 26th, 1982.  We at GROWN are proud to support the life-changing work they are performing.  Truly amazing!    

     Imagine being blind, never seeing your child's face. This was the case for a young Nepali mother blind from cataracts. Having heard of a Seva eye camp, her husband led her and their two youngest children, on a 10-day trek through the Himalayas to the Seva-sponsored eye camp where Dr. Spencer performed cataract surgery on both her eyes and restored her sight. "I will never forget the smile on her face, or the way she looked at her infant son," said Dr. Spencer. "You have given me divine eyes," the Nepali mother said to Dr. Spencer. 
    This is just one of the over 3 million stories which SEVA Canada has made possible due to their ongoing and righteous work.  We look forward to seeing them grow over the coming years and wish them a Happy Birthday!
Drop them a line and show your support!
Twitter: @sevaCANADA
Website: http://www.seva.ca 


Photo: © Ellen Crystal Photography

GROWN: Behind the Lens part 1 (Aquaseen)

We have long been a fan of legendary (and multi award winning) Australian underwater and landscape Photographer Matthew Shepherd.   We got in touch with him and met up for the first of many underwater photoshoots recently in Byron Bay, Australia. ScottyD helped out during one of his surf sessions. 
Matt has recently launched his new website and shows much of his work over the past 10 years, take a look here:  www.aquaseen.com and be sure to follow Aquaseen on facebook!
Have you ever wondered how those perfect shots are snapped?  Watch his behind the scenes wave photography VIDEO and find out!

The Journey. A story to remember.

 A Great story that we keep close to our hearts.  It will help bring you back to earth when needed. 

A tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats! Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions?...Then what?"

The tourist said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Life is a journey, not a destination.  Remember to enjoy yourself along the way.  The author is unknown.

Duck Dive

A great photo shoot today on the shores of Byron Bay's Belongil Beach.  Legendary photog Matthew Shepherd was behind the cam and here are a few of the pics we came up with.   Always looking for new ideas so if you have some thoughts, send us a message on FB or Twitter!

Just... about.. got it!

Matt Harrison has a keen sense of style and design.  He jumped to the challenge of working with us and right away we new it was the right choice.
He is Dedicated....
                          .... he listens
                                              ... I mean really listens to what you are trying to say.
... the top challenge of any designer is to decipher the nonsensical dribble that pours from a clients mouth and turn that brainfart into a workable, visual representation.
He has taken the random elements and general look and style that we wanted and put them together in an amazing design that we are proud to show off!
                                        .... he told us it will be 3 weeks.  and sent us a proof  9 hours later!

I won't give away the site design yet.  But ladies and gentlemen.. I give you the Grown Logo...

What do you think?

Almost...

We really thought we were on to something here....

...The problem is that it is still read as 'Crown' to some people and without the 'rown' text, the leaf logo doesn't look like a 'G' or a very good leaf.  Needs the touch of a keen eye for design.  In comes Matt Harrison....

Grown Logo

Pounding our heads against the wall to design the Grown logo to fit the exact feeling we wish to portray. This is a crucial element to the brand that will not only distinguish us from every other brand, but also in the blink on an eye (ideally) convey our message.

Not an easy task!  .. can you find the cat?

This is one of many pages. We found it a seemingly impossible task.  The task was:

• incorporate a leaf into the text design.
• The leaf should work well with the text and as a stand alone symbol.
• Possibly making the G into the leaf would be ideal.
• Oh.. and it must work for reproduction on clothing, carved wood and print.

The final choice is clean, crisp and conveys our brand.  All I can say is that we changed our thinking and got outside of this circular mindset.  It was groupthink at its worst... but for the final result, you'll have to wait and see...