We know what it is to want to think outside the box,
but be nervous about leaving the comfort of that box.
Dreams can be big and scary, but everyone starts somewhere.
Sometimes things line up in a way that you realize you could not have manufactured on your own and they really couldn’t have been coincidence. The past six months, maybe even more, have felt that way for us. There is really no way to go into all the detail of it, but we look back and marvel at the intricacies. Some of the bigger things are:
- Brainstorming how we were going to display our artwork randomly leading to buying a blank canvas.
- In the middle of the shoot realizing that there was a concept here that had potential, but not quite sure what it was.
- During image editing, the realization that these could be used as stock images and as printed cards.
- Krista coming to us and asking if she could job shadow a bit – us pondering that maybe we should just ask her to work with us.
- Everything coming together for us to spend the winter back in Costa Rica, along with Krista, who had become our intern.
- The random harebrained notion to do a BlankCanvas™ tour when we got back to the States.
- The realization that we needed a reason for people to get behind it.
Cut to side story: Kaleidoscope International.
Before the Beauty of One, we were (and still are) the creatives behind Kaleidoscope International, a branding & identity design company. Our intention was never to become a huge design firm, in all honesty, our goal was to garner our subsistence in other ways and leave Kaleidoscope as an avenue of helping out small businesses and non-profits with design, an area where corners are often cut. But somehow in the past two years our focus has started to shift and we began to see a broader picture of becoming a real small business resource and cheer-leading team of sorts.
Our vision for our family has always been to live and work together all the time, not just on evenings and weekends. After 7 long years of juggling day jobs (sometimes with 12 hour days) and all the regular life stuff that is imperative to survival, while working to learn and develop our other ventures on the side, figuring out how to be parents x2 and add all of that into the mix – we know how hard it can be, how many times you so badly want to give up. We know what it’s like to have to give each other pep talks every other week.
Contemplating all of this, in the past six months especially as we’ve set sail with little to no guaranteed monthly income, we’ve realized how incredibly valuable and necessary it is to have people around you who are encourage-ers, who not only don’t look at you like you’re crazy when you tell them about an idea you have, but who actually get excited with you!
We feel like this is a void in the regular business world that we want to do our part to fill. We want to come alongside our clients and brainstorm great ideas with them, be their biggest fans. And oh yeah, we also do great design.
Back to the BlankCanvas™ tour:
Somewhere along the way we had developed the slogan “Life is a blank canvas – paint an adventure!”™ and began to realize that these two components blended together into one amazing idea.
While traveling around capturing fun BlankCanvas™ shots, why not talk to people about what adventure means to them? Why not seek out and collect stories of real people doing scary things, taking risks, just putting themselves out there. But not only those who are already on the other side of success! No, why not collect stories from every stage of the journey? Why not let people see that much like being a grownup is not so sure and simple as a child envisions, the start of something big doesn’t always feel like you thought it would feel either.
For the past month we started researching a few crowdfunding options, namely Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, but we happened to learn about START.ac which launched just in time when our project was getting close to ready to put up, and we really loved some of the unique aspects of project building that they bring to the table, so we decided to give it a shot.
Our hobby has grown into something bigger than us – the blank canvas a symbol of endless possibilities, of creativity waiting to be unleashed, of taking risks and living with a mindset of adventure.
And that, my friends, is what we would like the opportunity to do. We want to take this adventure, we want to gather real life stories, and we want you to be a part of it!
Our vision is then to compile all of these stories and behind-the-scenes along with loads of other resources into an online community of people who can connect with each other, find things in common, and all help each other on our adventures. Because we know that collaboration and community are a powerhouse.
