Trademarking ocreations’ familiar phrase “Live Creative, Die Alive” doesn’t just secure the future of a sub-brand, it captures the essence of a lifestyle.
If you’ve taken a look at anything ocreations-related in the past year or so, chances are, you may have noticed the words “Live Creative, Die Alive” printed in close proximity to the ocreations logo. While this phrase has been showing up alongside of ocreations for quite some time now, we’ve never exactly explained its initial appearance, or its permanent residence on our website, social media, and constant contact emails. So, what’s the deal? Is it ocreations’ slogan? Is it a tagline of some forthcoming project? Do we just like the way it sounds? Well, now that “Live Creative, Die Alive” is officially a registered trademark with the government, it’s time we started explaining ourselves.
In strictly business terms, Live Creative, Die Alive (LCDA) is a sub-brand of ocreations. But the truth is, we’re still trying to nail down what the LCDA brand is going to be, and we’re going to need some help. Now, you may be thinking, “Isn’t trademarking a saying a bit premature when they don’t even know what the brand is going to be yet?” Normally, as people who work on branding, we would say yes. However, we also know that a brand is not made solely by its products, or its name, or its design; a brand needs meaning behind all those elements, and a narrative that ties them all together. And that is precisely what we have with LCDA.
The meaning behind “Live Creative, Die Alive”
One day back in early 2015, during a brainstorming session, ocreations President, Shawn O’Mara, and Vice President, Jesse Mader, came up with the concept of “Live Creative, Die Alive.” Ever since then, it has been evolving and gaining momentum. Again, at its most basic level, “Live Creative, Die Alive” is a sub-brand of ocreations. But to the entire ocreations team, it’s so much more than that. “Live Creative, Die Alive” is a motto, a philosophy, and a worldview.
Here at ocreations, we see things differently, and we’ve noticed a similar trend among our fellow creatives. Talk to anyone who’s a writer, an artist, a poet, a musician, a designer, or any other kind of creative talent. Chances are, they’ll tell you that they see the world differently than their friends, family members, and neighbors whose professions or pastimes are less creative, and more cut-and-dried. This difference is not a bad thing by any means, it’s just exactly that: a difference. It’s a matter of seeing things in black and white versus in color, or being more left-brained than right-brained. At ocreations, we see and think of things in full color, and that colored perspective helps us illustrate endless design possibilities and solutions everyday. Seeing the world in this way…
“Live Creative…”
We are not creative because we run a design agency; we run a design agency because we are inherently creative. We are not creative out of obligation, because our paychecks are contingent upon it; we receive paychecks because a long time ago we decided to dedicate our careers to utilizing our innate gifts of creativity, which we’ve refined to the level of professional skill. We’ve shaped our lives around being creative because there’s a certain thrill and fulfillment that comes from seeing an idea that originated in the inner-workings of your brain come to life, take on its own meaning, and serve a purpose for someone or something else. That sense of thrill and fulfillment is what keeps work, and life, interesting for us, and assures that we never get burnt out.
Protecting against work and life burnout is important. If we stop feeling excited and fulfilled by what we do in our day-to-day lives, it begins to feel monotonous, and we can lose our sense of motivation and purpose in life. When that happens, we might be living, but we stop feeling alive. Living creatively is our solution.
“… Die Alive”
We believe that if you live a creative life – whether that is through your work, hobbies, interests, etc. – then, when your time comes, you will feel as though you’ve lived a full life; you die alive. Benjamin Franklin once pointed out that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. It’s blunt, but it’s true. While we can’t do anything about the taxes, we can try to make the certainty of death a little less daunting by living life to its fullest. Getting to be creative every day…
The Next Steps
We took the steps to make “Live Creative, Die Alive” a registered trademark with the government because we believe in it as a philosophy, and we see its potential as a brand. We are answering the call of creativity, and we are excited to explore the wide-open future of the Live Creative, Die Alive brand. We still haven’t figured out exactly what LCDA is going to be – it could be a line of creative supplies, apparel, a blog, anything that captures the spirit and lifestyle of creativity. The possibilities are endless, and we are looking for suggestions from YOU!
We are issuing a call to action for our fellow creative people out there. What do you think the Live Creative, Die Alive brand should be? Over the course of the next month, we’ll be reaching out on social media to get feedback and engagement from current clients, past clients, or really anyone who has an idea for LCDA. If you have a suggestion, please comment, message, or contact us directly because just like with design, the more ideas, the better. We can’t wait to hear from you! Let’s get creative.
