Symbolic gestures

Last year at this time we were busy beavering away making the Animate for late and great Denis Dutton's TED talk on 'The Darwinian Theory of Beauty'. I was reminiscing about this on the drive into work this morning. Denis was a really charming man and I connected with him instantly when I first received his phone call. He first sent me a copy of his book 'The Art Instinct', which I loved. We conversed a few more times and I recommended him to download the podcasts for the excellent BBC Radio4 series, 'The history of the world in 100 objects' by Neil MacGregor, which he listened to whilst working in the garden. We had a really good rapport and I enjoyed his telephonic company immensely.

Denis had primed me to be ready for a package coming in the post. He wouldn't say what it was and hoped it would be a nice surprise. It certainly was. Denis had sent me an Acheulean hand axe, which was approximately 500,000 years old. A strange and beautiful object to be sent in the post. It really was an amazing gift and I was very touched by this gesture. You can see my hand holding the axe that Denis sent in the video we made.

At the same time I was re-branding the company logo and what came to mind was how the hand axe was really one of the earliest examples of applied thinking to craft a useful and also symbolic tool. I thought it might be nice to use a hand axe as our logo. I hope we also craft useful and symbolic thinking tools.