Stand by, Panama. I’m Wearing “Las Señoritas” on the Island Princess Cruise.

Last year, Bill Barrett of Barrett-Wehlmann and his wife took the same Panama Canal cruise, on the same ship, that we’re taking end of March. After talking with him and seeing some of his photos, the need for a new modest (fashion) statement seemed evident to me.

I needed to go far beyond the mundane cruisewear of yesteryear (such as displayed in the ad, bottom right). After all, some agency CD might want to create a more vivid advertising campaign for Princess. I want to be ready for my close-up, Mr DeMille.

I was aided and abetted again this time by the Amazing Seamstress Herself, my traveling companion, Barbara. I got to select the fabric and it was something of a struggle, you know how timid I am about colors and patterns.

Fortunately, the Folkorico section of the Alexander Henry Fabric Collection (gots to be a California company!) yielded “Las Señoritas” in the right summer-cruising weight. The colors have the kind of understated approach you all know I favor. And even though this collection has similar patterns with island girls and aloha girls, these are pale by comparison.

Alexander Henry is the self-proclaimed industry leader in cutting-edge, conversational print design. It’s quite clear that “he” created this particular pattern for someone who carries on a conversation at the top of his lungs. Like yours truly.

“Las Señoritas” isn’t the only loud shirt I’m packing but it’s the newest and I’d like to thank the Members of the Academy for not hiding their eyes in shame as I travel to and from the Canal in a few weeks. If advertising is life, then self-promotion is…me!

Pattern: Simplicity #3852. Crafter: Barbara Nytes-Baron    . Thanks and much more to Frank White the Photographer for the excellent photo (top). Older travel photo (bottom) published on CreativePro.com by Gene Gable, February 19, 2010.

China Boys

When Sandy Levin, the founder and CEO of Import Traders, made his first trip to China in the very early ‘70s, he didn’t know the name of the hotel he’d be staying it – the Chinese wouldn’t tell him ‘til he got there.

“It was a totally different society…everyone carried Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book in their pocket and it was full of sayings, mostly anti-entrepreneurial, anti-American and anti-the-rest-of-the-world.”

One satisfaction of crafting fresh, contemporary copy for the revamped Import Traders website has been talking to Levin, who was also one of just 40 Americans invited to the ’74 Canton Fair. Another has been working with Barrett-Wehlmann, Import Traders’ Houston-based marcomms agency, as it developed the new company site.

Even today, it’s no simple matter for many American manufacturers who don’t have offices in China to have products sourced and manufactured there – then shipped over to the US for distribution and sale. So Import Traders has been building and maintaining relationships with factories in China for decades.

Having done business in developing areas of Eastern Europe, I knew going in that reliability is a key issue. Import Traders has solved that two ways. One, the company really does know the Chinese very well. And two, Import Traders guarantees the manufactures to its US customers’ satisfaction…pretty bold for a “simple middleman.”

Import Traders is more than a middleman. That made the difference clear enough for anyone (even me). Here’s a company that has solved a big problem in overseas manufacturing: The question of trust.

Since part of this assignment was to talk with satisfied Import Traders customers here in the US, I also had the chance to discuss specific challenges with manufacturing engineers, marketers and inventors...I had a chance to learn even more. Chinese manufacturing is not just for tchotchkes any more…hasn’t been for years. (That’s “trinkets,” in case your Yiddish isn’t working today.)

There’s still a save-you-money angle. But the real issue is trustworthiness. I think that’s what the website and the content convey, whether prospects are trying to source and produce picture frames or printed circuit boards.

So thanks to the “China Boys” at Barrett-Wehlmann for letting me work on this site, now a very effective combination of business-like and attractive. That’d be Carl Glatzel on art direction and Darrell Wehlmann on web build and search engine optimization. The Creative Director is James Grantham; the Management Super is Bill Barrett.

And thanks to Levin for the great conversation, too.