History Matters is a series of shorts that briefly tell the stories of influential people in history.
We want to bring you stories about the people that changed our hearts, minds, and history books. This episode is about Booker T. Washington and is narrated by Laurie Menekou from Conceptual Communications.
Erica Diaz tells the story of Benjamin Banneker – a free African-American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist, and farmer who corresponded with Thomas Jefferson on the topics of slavery and racial equality.
Black History Month marked the first episodes of our new mini-series History Matters. In this episode, our good friend Lucianne Ungerbuehler of F2F Studios recounts the story behind the famous African-American writer Alex Haley.
Alex Haley’s book Roots is one of the most well-known books in American history. We felt that Alex Haley is an extremely significant figure who caused a cultural sensation throughout the United States. His legacy holds some of the most important works of U.S. history.
Otis Miller means more to C&I Studios than you can imagine. His influence reigns high all around us. We thought there was no better person to narrate this episode of History Matters – our mini series that looks to pay homage to those influential people from history.
Eric Garner is part of the reverence we want to pay Black History Month and we thought Otis would do so better than anyone else. Without a past, there is no future. Without mistakes, there is no progress. We want to exalt the people that have changed our lives forever.
We’ve been asking ourselves… what exactly will it take?
On Friday, the airport we frequent on average more than once a week, made us the most recent city to become a #pray for hashtag. Five people were killed, six seriously injured, and countless people went through an unthinkably tragic trauma.
We have opinions–strong ones–about gun violence. We believe that there are ways to mitigate the sheer volume of gun related deaths in our country. We believe that innocent people should not be senselessly mowed down when waiting for their bags at the carousel. We believe that some of this can be prevented.
We don’t believe that this is going to go away (evil people will do evil things with whatever resources they have available). We don’t believe that everyone should turn in their guns (It’s called gun control, not gun elimination). And we don’t believe that it’s easy to change anyone’s minds as it pertains to the second amendment.
But we’d like to talk about it. We have charts that we’ve studied, we have read the actual second amendment, from “well regulated” to “not be infringed”. We understand the argument from a federal power vs. states rights viewpoint. The fact of the matter is that some states make it easier to purchase an AK-47 than it is to own a dog or sell milk. That seems silly to us.
There are thousands of articles out there like this. Thousands of people spouting off these facts, and displaying these charts, and listing these victims, and pointing towards these petitions, and giving these Congressional email addresses.
But right now, we want to open a discussion. Because we would rather there be a conversation than a one-sided diatribe.
If you are against strict federal gun control laws: Why do you feel that gun ownership should have a wide window of minimum requirements? What happens during a firearm purchase in Louisiana is vastly different than what happens in California.
On a personal level, if you own a firearm, why? Do you think it should be easy to own one?
After 9/11, the federal government formed the TSA. And yeah, it has caused headaches for all of us, but we are all behind it, because we believe it makes us safer. So… what will it take for us to all get behind more thorough federal regulations of gun ownership? If tragedy after tragedy in movie theaters, universities, grocery stores, nightclubs, churches don’t do it… If 20 first-graders don’t do it… What is going to do it?
Owning a business is hard. You feel like you are constantly spinning plates, unable to keep up with everything from development to finances to marketing. Willie Morris of Faithbox and Sara Shake of Kali Boxes share their insight on the importance of high-quality content.
In this day and age, everyone thinks that they are a photographer or a videographer, but your target audience is much more discerning than you think. They can clearly see the difference between amateur and professional, and they are constantly on the prowl for fresh imagery. They are so quick to scroll past your posts on social media if they feel like they’ve seen that image before, so how can you keep it fresh?
Your brand has a story to tell, and it is vital that you capture and translate that story out to your audience in a very clear way. The best investment that you can make into your company’s success is a solid and clear marketing plan, with your social media presence a priority. Connect yourself, and your brand, with a company that knows how to synthesize your key messages into imagery and words that are unique to you, that speak with your voice.
Willie and Sara talk through the constant pull to market their companies in the video below:
So what is C&I?
C&I is a combination of fresh, incredible ideas, the perfect team—who fears no project or deadline, and a little bit of magic.
It is tough to describe what C&I means to us, because it’s more than a company. Being able to help business owners and corporations accomplish a marketing goal through storytelling is an incredible feeling, and we are addicted to seeing these campaigns work.
What we do is hard to replicate. You can’t hire an internal marketing team and achieve the same goal. We have the outside view, the outside opinion, the fresh perspective. We are thinking not only about our clients, but how our clients can be successful every single day. What we do at C&I is more than just a job to us. We were made to create, and we bring that passion to every single project that we work on. We package our creativity with compelling research and statistics to accomplish any goal.
The secret sauce of our company is its people. A team of selfless workaholics that aren’t satisfied with just being good. When we step up to the plate with every client, we never want a base hit, we want to throw our bat on the ground and watch the ball fly into the stands. We aren’t the middlemen, either. We are the men, we are the women, and we know how to take an idea straight out of thin air and technically execute it right in front of you.
We aren’t creatives, we are professionals. Creatives need to be inspired to take action. Professionals are so good, that they need to no inspiration to act.
These words have only tried to scratch the surface of what C&I is. Watch this video, and you’ll see what we mean.
Orlando.
By now, everyone has spoken out against the absolute horror that struck a town not too far from our headquarters. The temporary Facebook profile pics are up, the hashtags are flowing, the gun control debate is raging, the anti-Muslim rhetoric increasing… this is how we do this. Someone takes a gun into a crowded place, shoots people, and the best we can do is add a profoundly captioned black and white selfie to Instagram, or perhaps a skyline shot. It’s noise, and we are fooling ourselves if we think it is making a difference.
So, rather than contribute to the noise, we want to suggest real action you can take, to help Orlando and to help society.
TALK TO PEOPLE.
Don’t tweet or post or snap. Look at someone in the eyes and have a real conversation about guns, about hate, about terror and fear.
Incidents like these can be very isolating, and members of the LGBTQ community are already often the victims of exclusion and isolation. So talk to your friends who identify as LGBTQ. A genuine conversation will go a lot further than your hashtag.
WRITE AN EMAIL OR A LETTER.
In America, you can go to a gun show, and buy an assault-style rifle without a background check, and this is legal. You can go to a dealer, pull out some cash, and pick up a semi-automatic without even producing an ID. Easier than picking up a 6-pack of some craft brew. If this seems stupid to you, it’s because it is.
Is your Congressman or woman checking out your Twitter? Looking at trending hashtags? No, no they are not. But maybe if enough of us let them know that we’re sick of this, they’ll do something about how ridiculously easy it is to acquire a firearm that can kill hundreds of people in a matter of minutes. Gun control is just that—gun CONTROL. Not gun elimination.
Here’s a quick guide to contacting your Congressman.
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS.
49 people lost their lives Sunday morning. They didn’t go to Pulse that night asking for their eventual victimization to become a talking point in America. They were real people with friends and families and dogs and cats and jobs and hopes and dreams. Now their families suddenly have to maneuver through funerals and cleaning out apartments and trying to figure out how they are supposed to put one foot in front of the other each day. Send a couple bucks their way.
And learn just a little bit about the victims here.
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There’s a lot more that we want to say from behind our Macbook screens, but honestly, we are sick of all of the talk. Let’s actually do something this time.
Photo Credit:ABC 7 Eyewitness News
The nature of our work leaves us with hours and hours of material that never gets to see the light of day. In that same vein, it allows us the pleasure of making the likes of Eckhart Tolle proud and allows us the hyperawareness of living in the moment. In having permanent access to a camera in most situations, it’s more often than not that we see little moments that capture our fancy that might otherwise go unnoticed. Tiny lapses of time that we think are worth highlighting. Thats where our Dailies began. Our goal is to highlight these moments in order to gain a higher appreciation for the details that make our day so special.
We captured this Daily with our good friend Alyssee during the Malibu shoot we put together for the Reach Kini. The Reach Kini is a collaborative effort between our non-profit organization C&I Reach and Montce Swim. We wanted to create something that would help fund raise for Reach while still delivering a beautiful product that people want to wear. During the shoot we kept finding new spots and gorgeous natural structures. We spent the whole day in Malibu finding something new in every crevice. We ended up with so much b-roll that was so beautiful, we couldn’t help put this short video up as part of our Dailies.
Artist Sierra Raspberry hosted an art show for a collaborative effort with her boyfriend. They’re calling the show Selfie-ish. The message inspiring their work comes from the observation that our society has been pointed in a direction that glorifies self obsession and vanity through our social media vehicles.
The show as a whole was looking to shine a light onto that particular facet of our cultural personality that wasn’t present in our lives as short as fifteen years ago. By way of paint on canvas, Sierra wanted to display the phenomenon in a positive light and as part of our natural evolution as human beings.
There is an American unspoken tradition of family plans going awry. We’ve all been there. Mom and Dad try to organize a nice outing with the kids. If it’s at the beach, it’ll rain. If it’s road trip, the backseat arguments will somehow turn into a wrestling royal rumble. There is something so special about the memories made when plans don’t go quite as planned.
For this concept shoot, we wanted to capture that idea. We wanted to highlight the moments, that on the surface might seem to come as bad luck, but in retrospect build the memories we will cherish for the rest of our lives.
To say that being a young business owner has its challenges is an understatement. We are so often told “you can’t. You don’t know how. You are too young.” Like most good things though, the challenges make the pay-off that much more rewarding. At C&I, we want only to inspire and be inspired. To create a kinder, more beautiful world through the things our brains help our hands make.
THINK magazine isn’t any old magazine. While they sport a luxury lifestyle feel, they also pay attention to the little things happening in Florida. It’s awesome that they focus on our community. We’re honored to be featured in their publication.
