The Addams Family - Moonbathing

Friday, September 18, 1964. “The Addams Family” makes its debut on network television.

Unapologetically Addams

Condensed

IKEA. It’s infamous here in Houston for long lines, impossible parking, labyrinth-like store layouts, painfully vague instruction booklets and questionable (yet delicious) meatballs. 

Here for the Hygge

Regular

When I was visiting The Museum of Fine Arts’ Shooting the Moon: Photographs from the Museum’s Collection 50 years After Apollo 11 this past weekend, I found a small art depiction of a native tribe gathering around outside during an eclipse and supposedly making noise.

Share One, Share All.

When I was visiting The Museum of Fine Arts’ Shooting the Moon: Photographs from the Museum’s Collection 50 years After Apollo 11 this past weekend, I found a small art depiction of a native tribe gathering around outside during an eclipse and supposedly making noise. The exhibit label explained that they believed there was a giant animal in the sky trying to eat the sun—therefore everyone had to go outside and make noise to scare the animal away.

Semi-Condensed

Well-behaved is overrated: The silences and gaps that make history

“Well-behaved women seldom make history” — an oft-repeated quote with a surprising history itself.

“Well-behaved women seldom make history” — an oft-repeated quote with a surprising history itself.

Accessibility and Aggression: The Weirdly Harmonic Rules of Krav Maga

I’ve been taking lessons in Krav Maga (Hebrew for “contact combat”) for about eight months now.

I had a hard time coming up with something motivational to say on a Monday. I was in charge of finding and posting motivation Monday quotes for social media at a previous job.

Moments Worth Recognition

I had a hard time coming up with something motivational to say on a Monday. I was in charge of finding and posting motivation Monday quotes for social media at a previous job. Every Monday I would wake up thinking, “Shit–what’s a motivational quote I can post that has less than 10 words?” And this morning was, “Shit–what’s a motivational thing I can talk about thats more than ten words?”

It’s easy to feel like you don’t belong or like you weren’t meant to be here – as an artist or a creative, as an activist or even just as a person (you’re always welcomed here).

Originality is dead. Let’s steal.

It’s easy to feel like you don’t belong or like you weren’t meant to be here – as an artist or a creative, as an activist or even just as a person (you’re always welcomed here). A lot of the time, we feel like phonies, as Holden Caulfield would say.

When play gets serious and science gets seriously fun

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Embrace the serious science of play to re-connect to the brain boosting power of fun. Your inner child and future self will thank you.

Empowerment + Time = Change

Recently, I heard a story of an airport security guard named LaDonna who effectively changed the entire work culture of the airport. I think the reason this story spoke to me, is that contrast to the typical “American Dream” stories we hear, this isn’t a story about a woman who worked her way from the ground up–well, it is, but that’s not the point–it’s a story about one person changing a larger problem through smaller actions.

Compressed

Every day feels so overwhelming. To start, there’s just life.

A Book Report: Everybody Always

3 steps to turn everyday get-togethers into transformative gatherings | Priya Parker

Planning a good party or experience can feel really overwhelming.

More than a Party, for Party’s Sake

Planning a good party or experience can feel really overwhelming. 

I’m riding through the scorching pavements of Louisiana.

Can I Hold the Mic?

I’m riding through the scorching pavements of Louisiana. It’s 2 p.m. I passionately, emotionally and thuggishly listen to Solange as she philosophically elaborates:

“I can’t be a singular expression of myself–there’s too many parts, too many spaces, too many manifestations, too many lines, too many curves, too many troubles, too many journeys, too many mountains, too many rivers, so many.”

I correlate this 5-hour journey with a personal, vulnerable journey. I patiently waited for my touchdown in Houston–directly alluding to my patience during moments where the heavy weight of the world seems to be a strain on my serotonin levels.

Texas Children's Hospital performs Rachel Platten's "Fight Song"

There have been enough think pieces published to know we exist in an attention economy.

This is My Fight Song

There have been enough think pieces published to know we exist in an attention economy. Every one and every thing is fighting for our eyeballs and brain power. And it is EXHAUSTING to try to consume and manage all of the content being pulsed out by the media, brands and the digital social connections in one’s universe. 

Ever since I can recall thinking, I can recall daydreaming.

In Defense of Daydreaming

Situatedness Animation

Understanding our situatedness, blowing up assumptions

What are the things your brain has been conditioned to believe as “true”? What should you re-examine, pull apart and re-assemble with intention?

St. Louis Blues 🏆 on Twitter: "PLAY GLORIA!!!!!!!! 🎶

#WeAllBleedBlue #stlblues… "

Carolina Hurricanes on Twitter: "New Fans. Old Fans. We don't care. 

Every jerk is welcome to join the #Canes family. 

Available soon at The Eye.… "

Hamilton the Pig rallies Hurricanes fans for Game 4

Doc meets Barclay, the Blues' office puppy

Don’t Pull Your Goalie Too Early: An Ode to Playoff Hockey & What This Season Has Taught Me

An Ode to Playoff Hockey & What This Season Has Taught Me

It’s not all on you. It’s all on “we.”

I have been thinking so much about new beginnings. Right beginnings.

I have been thinking so much about new beginnings. Right beginnings. Taking risks into those beginnings. In my creative life, I believe firmly in the power of knowing you can do something at 75% percent and being terrified of the last quarter.

Flower Power

It’s Not Where Good Ideas Come From. It’s When.

In this office we’re always uncovering some new video, podcast, song or book—which is wonderful, because The More You Know and all that.

In this office we’re always uncovering some new video, podcast, song or book—which is wonderful, because The More You Know and all that. But what we don’t spend much time talking about is alone time. Or, to make it sound less frightening, “solitude.”

My love for comics and cartooning originated from the Detroit Free Press, mainly obsessively reading Calvin and Hobbes.

Drawn Together

There’s a particular kind of project that doesn’t feel like a project.

It feels like something else entirely. Over Black Sheep’s 16 years, we’ve learned to recognize these engagements — the ones where the stakes are real, where the mission is load-bearing, where getting the story right genuinely changes what’s possible for the people an organization serves. We’ve also learned that these are the projects we want to fill our days with.

Right now, our roster is full of them. I want to talk about that — not as a highlight reel, but as a reflection of what we believe this work is for. And if you’re leading one of these organizations right now and it feels heavy or uncertain or like your story isn’t keeping pace with your mission, this is for you too.


Some projects aren’t a single scope — they’re a relationship, built over time, through the kind of trust that only comes from doing hard things together.

Houston Arts Alliance is in one of the most pivotal moments in its history. A new CEO — the first woman and person of color to lead the organization — has stepped into a role that carries both enormous expectation and extraordinary possibility. We are building alongside them from the ground up: immediate messaging and leadership transition tools, a mission and vision refresh, a public education campaign, a community engagement process and a full brand foundation. Long, layered, listening-first work. Some of our favorite kind.

Houston Parks Board is marking its 50th anniversary at the start of an exciting new chapter — bold new leadership, a visionary strategic plan and a future that has been a century in the making. We’re evolving their brand to match the scale of that moment. Being trusted when the foundation is strong and the future is wide open is its own kind of honor.

Good Reason Houston is an organization we know well — we built their original brand in 2018, and they’ve called on us at several points of strategic inflection since. This is one of those moments. The world these leaders are navigating looks almost nothing like it did seven years ago, and our work together right now is about finding language that tells their story with clarity and confidence for where things are today.

Civic Builders finances and develops school facilities across the country, making excellent schools possible in communities where the need is greatest. We completed a full messaging and positioning strategy with them, and we’re now deep into their visual identity system — in genuine collaboration with their extraordinary internal team. This partnership is the kind we aspire to: the work belongs to all of us.

The Greater Houston Partnership is building an AI-powered tool to connect educators, employers and community partners in ways that expand workforce opportunity. We’re building the brand that makes it accessible and credible from day one.

Fervo Energy is redefining what clean energy looks like. We are their strategic design agency — giving visual and creative form to the complexity of what they’re building, because a breakthrough technology deserves a story told with equal craft.

The University of Nevada, Reno trusted us to direct a digital campaign for their Black Youth Mental Health Initiative — designed to reach young people at the right moment, in the right channels and keep them connected to support that can change the trajectory of their lives. This follows our branding and strategy work for their CDC-sponsored Safer Nights opioid overdose prevention campaign last year.

The Center for Civic and Tech Life is now publishing a magazine for local election officials — the people who make democracy function at the ground level. We named and developed the publication’s visual identity, because this community deserves tools that reflect the seriousness of their work.

In collaboration with January Advisors, we’re working with the League of Women Voters Houston on a set of core values and a strategic plan built for what comes next. The League has been doing this work longer than most organizations have existed. Helping them articulate where they’re headed is not something we take lightly.

Much of this work is happening in Houston — the city where Black Sheep was founded, where many of us live and where we feel the stakes of these institutions personally. When you’re a Houstonian working on Houston, it stops being a client list and starts being something else.

It takes something to make this call. The leaders we work with aren’t doing it because things are easy — they’re doing it because they’ve decided that a story that can’t carry the mission is a liability they can’t afford. That takes clarity about what’s actually at stake. It takes a willingness to look honestly at the gap between where you are and how you’re being perceived. And it takes the kind of courage that doesn’t always get named as courage — the quiet decision to invest in something foundational when there are a hundred urgent things competing for the same resources.

But the thread running through all of it — local and national — is the same: find the organizations doing the most necessary work, and make sure their story is strong enough to carry their mission forward.

If your organization is in a moment that demands more clarity, more confidence or a story that finally matches where you’re headed — we’d love to be in that room with you.

A reflection on 16 years of learning which projects are worth our days — and the mission-driven organizations we're building alongside right now.

The Work That Doesn't Feel Like Work | Black Sheep Agency

What it takes to build a story strong enough to carry a mission forward.

A reflection on the partnerships filling our roster right now — and what it takes for mission-driven organizations to build a story strong enough to carry their work forward.

The Black Sheep blog is turning up the volume on community engagement, social media strategy, Houston happenings and what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.

The Black Sheep Agency | Social impact and nonprofit blog

We like to type as much as we like to listen.

We're not shy.

The Work That Doesn’t Feel Like Work