I’ve been pretty vocal about my respect for Kendrick Lamar as an artist, creator, and entrepreneur--I’m still bumping Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (and all of this albums) regularly. As he’s moved on from his TDE days to his creative collective pgLang, I’ve been paying attention to everything the new company puts out. The majority of the production so far has been music videos of Kendrick, Baby Keem, and Tanna Leone (all artists signed to pgLang) along with a couple of commercials and shorts like this one for CashApp:

Maybe it’s because I’m a huge fan of Kendrick, but I have yet to find anything he’s put out that I don’t love or find brilliant and inspiring. A lot of my creative energy and ideas start with inspiration from other Creators. Earlier this year my wife and I drove over to Columbus, Ohio to see Kendrick perform and it was at that concert I decided PRST needed a second logo (the 36 line circle is the original logo--I view it as our Swoosh). As I watched the concert I began to appreciate the pgLang logo of two kids pointing at a floating letter ‘A’. This image was often on one of the big screens on the side of the main stage and I told my wife that I wanted to have a standalone logo like pgLang’s for PRST.

After the concert I didn’t spend much energy into developing the new logo. I just put the idea out into the Universe and trusted when the time was right the idea would reveal itself.

And one day it did…

the bald eagle

Over the last couple of years the bald eagle has become a special image and sign for me. Long story short, for the first 38+ years of my life I had never seen a bald eagle in the wild, despite Indianapolis having a small population of the majestic bird. As my PRST led me to spiritual growth and a greater connection with and appreciation of nature, I started to see bald eagles flying overhead and it was always when I had made some type of important decision--it was like they were a sign that I was moving in the right direction and in fact, after a quick Google search I learned that’s exactly what it meant. I’ve stopped counting how many times I’ve seen a bald eagle but I haven’t lost the excitement each time one shows up because I know what it means.

As I started to put more thought behind the new logo, I knew I wanted a bald eagle to be included--the bird would represent the importance of being connected to nature, be open to and receiving signs from Higher Powers, and trusting the Universe’s desire to conspire with us to help us reach our goals, in addition to the personal meaning of the bald eagle.

With the first part of the image in mind, I took to Canva to see what I could come up with and this was my first draft

a young child

I didn’t love this first version but I was extremely excited because I was on the right path--I knew I was heading in the right direction.

I also knew I wanted/needed some help getting the final image so I reached out to a talented visual artist and new friend of mine, **Tony Concep **to bring the concept to life. I didn’t have to share much with him--we were on the same frequency from the beginning. After sitting with my first draft, I knew I wanted just one individual with the bald eagle and I wanted it to be a young child. I went back and forth as to whether or not the child should be a boy or girl and decided to go with a boy to represent me, in addition to everyone’s inner child. I appreciate how Tony created a child that most will see as a young boy, but could be a young girl with short hair--it’s just vague enough to be able to be seen differently by different people.

As I mentioned, the young child represents our inner child. I equate our inner child with creativity, optimism, innocence, curiosity, and overall genuine appreciation for life. Most adults have lost those traits that make children so happy---they are scarred, jaded, stressed, lack creativity, and too many are unhappy. But, by tapping into our inner child and finding creative ways to express ourselves, explore our passions, and pursue the life we really want, as a child would, more of us would be living happier lives and minimizing regret.

To say I’m ecstatic with the final version would be an understatement--it captures the PRST spirit with just two simple images. I love it.

I’m not sure exactly how the logo will fit into the marketing and branding for PRST but it’ll be a major component--figuring that out is part of the fun of the early days of the brand. I do know this, eventually the brand will be recognized by the image itself.