Why the Pencil?
There are objects and passions in life that seem to grab our attention. My passion was drawing, and the object was the lowly yellow pencil. I was fond of pencils from the first time I held a giant version with my Big Chief Tablet in the first grade as a kid. Then as my creative bent continued to develop, I realized that I was cut out for pencil illustration. And I’ve been fond of pencils and their ability to correct, blend and create on a level that few other objects can facilitate. So it is no surprise that I turned to a yellow pencil as my first business logo, and likely my last. Pencils have a very long history back to the Greeks and Romans, but they were mentioned in writings as early as the 1500s. But the more modern pencils we know today were developed or engineered in the 1700s by the likes of Conte’. And today, there is only one pencil manufacturer left in America, the Musgrave Pencil Company in Tennessee. I own a box of their Tennessee Reds just to have them. But they are a lovely writing instrument. Most pencils today are from other locales due to this digital revolution we are living through. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I hope someday the lowly yellow pencil will find a place in the hearts of humanity. It is the only way to create, then erase our ideas, then re-create the ideas that can ultimately change the world.
Galen
I was about to leave Safeway Stores in 1980 and was trying to find a name for my new graphic design and pencil-illustration business when I stumbled upon the name DesignGraphics. That name described what I did, and I’ve always liked it when a name says it all. But what about a logo? On Feb 7, 1981, my first logo was a PMS 123 Yellow bent pencil in cartoon art style. The concept for the bent pencil was a gift from above in my way of thinking. I happen to see the lower case d and the lower case g, when overlaid, would make a bent pencil… And the bent pencil was born.
Five years into the business, the company name needed to be changed to reflect the complex business we had become and we changed the name to AdPlex… and advertising complex. And a new logo was on the agenda. But not so fast… everyone was totally up in arms when they found out the name change would bring a new icon. So after just a little thinking, we decided to keep the bent pencil logo, and it has been around since.
When I left adplex in 2007 they kept the rights to the dg logo… but I named the company “Bent Pencil” and just flipped the pencil around to be a b and a p. Later, the President of adplex bought the company and gave me the right to use the logo, and I was able to get the trademark back on both the dg and the bp once he closed adplex. So if you see the pencil flipped, don’t flip out. It’s okay both ways. Today, Go Think! will take the best two identities I’ve ever created and merged them into one icon. The name was retired in January 2019 when we changed the company name to Relationshop, and bought MCM Tech in Vietnam. But I kept the rights to the GoThink with plans one day to revive it as a consultancy once again. And on September 18, 2024, I had the chance to do just that as I moved from CEO to Chairman of Relationshop. Each iteraitive has been more enriched by new experiences and knowledge. Off we go…
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