I’m happy with the logo and mark for now, i’ve moved on to sketching ideas for prototypes ( ill get them up tomorrow) and thinking about how I would package these things.

I’m thinking some type of aluminum hinged box for large things like wheels… trying to find where I can have them made or find them. Something like this is the closest to my vision.

The wheels probably wouldnt come out of the box, rather it would be built in, so you open it up and use it. I would like paint them and apply some type of label to them. I was really considering everything being monotone black and white, but I think I want to use a  light green and cream for packaging…

Like a hard enamel paint, you know? I think it would fit the bill of a product coming from a laboratory.

Its been a long day, and I look forward to lots of work in the next two days.

Stay tuned!

The Decision Laboratory mark re-purposes the eightpointed star, using three triangles as parts. The star is larger on the top, creating an arrow alluding to a direction; a decision made.

Universal Symbolism of the eight point star:

The eight-point star appears in cultures around the globe. It can be found on national flags and in religious iconography. It carries various meaning associated with each culture that utilizes it. The are eight-paths in the way of Buddah and eight immortals in Chinesse tradition. However, its universal symbolism is one of balance, harmony, and cosmic order. Its pattern is associated early astronomy, religion, and mysticism. It is symbolic of both stars and humanity’s earliest attempts to understand and communicate the order and unity inherent in Creation, nature’s rule. The roots of the eight-point star symbol are in early astronomy. The eight lines are symbolic of the four corners of space (north, south, east, and west) and time (two solstices and two equinoxes)

Also, here are some type explorations (and the beginning of an idea)

Decision Laboratory
Decision Laboratory creates tools for the indecisive and adventurous person. It is a brand that creates products that allow people to free themselves from routine and indecision, using chance as their decision maker. Starting with the 25 Encounters with Blue collection and in my 15 Random Walks book, I have been leaving things up to chance, not knowing what I was collecting. I feel that I am always interested in developing the method of how I will do something more than the end result (spinning wheels and creating rules for coin flips, lotto numbers, etc…). Realizing this, I feel like designing methods for others to make decisions is an exciting area for me (and something that doesn’t exist in the world).

Decision Laboratory is: a brand • lighthearted • designing, manufacturing • offering people a different     way to look at daily life • bizarre •  creating a sort of mysticism, occult atmosphere.  It is not: serious • important • one medium

The objective? To create both new products/tools, and re-designs of existing chance tools in a high quality, carefully designed fashion. To identify Decision Laboratory as an authority in chance based decision generating methods. To encourage people to use my items and activities, allowing chance and randomness to have some sort of control in their life. This will ideally lead to new experiences and unexpected outcomes. My goal is not to sell lots of items and make tons of money, but just to design new and unusual prototypes that I could make again if someone was interested in purchasing.

The audience is people that need help making decisions. People who want to free themselves from their daily routine. People who are interested in the occult and mysticsm.  They will reached by internet, and mail order catalogs.

My plan is to write a mission statement and explore and define the visual language I will use. I will create 5-10 products or items that aid a person in chance based decision making. Explain to people how chance can play a valuable role in their life. Create a website/catalog/infomercial that showcases the items

Product Examples would be:
• Spinning wheels with changeable platters (for different types of results)
• random number selecting dartboards
• Activity boxes ( a box that you draw free/cheap things to do from [i.e. go to a park; go take pictures of things things that are blue, buy a book at the nearest used book store, philosophical ideas, etc…)
• Coins (custom cast bronze coins with my own version of heads/tails)
• Custom raffle tickets
• Dice (custom made, more special than the average dice)
• Random walk Kit: everything you need with instructions on how to create a random path in your own neighborhood and document the results
• more that I havent come up with.