So, it’s been a weird week with celebrities passing, but Billy Mays leaving us hits close to home for me – literally and figuratively. The Mays have lived in Tampa for awhile and he was a regular at the fish house a block away. I first met Billy, Jr. there and talked to him for a long time about infomercials from my days at OttLite Technology without even knowing that he was a Mays. I eventually was introduced to his father and remember how nice he was and sharing stories about people in the industry that we both knew. Other times he’s been there he’s spoken with my kids and you could just feel how genuine he was for being a guy that is known for being in the spotlight.

On a professional level, I’ve spent the last week preparing to pitch identity and packaging concepts for one of Billy’s projects. I woke up Sunday thinking of how I was going to finish up my proposal for Tuesday’s meeting and had just gotten started when I heard the news. So, there I am, sitting at my desk with images and sketches of Billy that I had just finished and his name in 20 different typefaces on my screen. I had just spent many hours of many days immersed in thoughts of who Billy is, how the public sees him, and how to represent that in way that works for this project and.. then – like that – he’s gone.

I can’t imagine how his family feels. Personally, its hard not to be disappointed about losing a great opportunity, but as a neighbor, I feel for his family and their loss of a great husband and father. Rest in peace.

David Lanham has some new work that he did for Mozilla promoting Firefox. I dig it. So now I have a new desktop image. “Blob Attack” is now gracing my iMac, but I grabbed a couple of others too.

"Blob Attack" by David Lanham