Jelly Helm: The Stories That We Have Told to Us and That We Tell Ourselves?

Movember?

November?

Well, timing is everything it seems (or what I like to tell myself anyway), as I read an article this November in a 'Mind Body Spirit' magazine written by a guy I had not heard of before named Jelly Helm.

I was nearly going to skip over this article, but a coin placed on the face of an angel in the article caught my eye and as coincidence would have it I had just written a post about coins when I saw this article in my 'Mind Body Spirit' magazine -
What is a Visual Metaphor?

A whole 21 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle from a Half Dollar?-)

After reading Jelly's article I found out that he works in advertising and has a website called 'Studio Jelly' where you can see advertising campaigns his company has worked on over the years.

MLS Timbers brand campaign, 2010

One of the advertising campaigns Jelly's company had worked on was for the Portland Timbers soccer team, which involved ordinary supporters of the soccer club posing with a double headed axe.

Now, I had just seen the sequel to 'The Shining' that November, so when I see a wild-eyed person with an axe in their hands what story do you think comes into my mind?-)

Especially when exterior shots of the Timerline Lodge in Oregon were used in Kubrick's Shining movie. 

My November 1st, 2019 newspaper

Another coincidence was that I was working on a post about seeing the new 'Doctor Sleep' movie and I had a local November 1st, 2019 newspaper on the floor near my desk opened to the page of a guy standing with an axe in his hands (see the photo right at the top of this post) and wearing a shirt advertising the Movember charity campaign, which runs throughout the month of November, which just happened to be the month 'Doctor Sleep' hit Australian cinema screens.
On the front of that November 1st, 2019 newspaper was the headline DAM BIG IDEA and I had just listened to a podcast called 'Have a Nice Idea' featuring Jelly Helm talking about his life as far as getting to where he is now in his career recorded 2/23/15 at Velo Cult Bike Shop in Portland, OR.
Jelly Helm/Have a Nice Idea

Stories also in that November 1st, 2019 newspaper:-)

Brand strategy and development, visual identity, 2012-2013

Studio Jelly brand strategy and development,
 visual identity, 2012–2013

The same November 1st, 2019 newspaper:-)

The thing that struck me as strange reading Jelly Helm's article in the Watkins Books magazine was that usually every major article written in the magazine featuring a person is about flogging a current book that that person in the article has written, but Jelly didn't have a book to sell, just a website to go visit.

The end of the Jelly Helm's 'Mind Body Spirit' article

Jelly was basically telling a story about the story of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey story that storytellers and writers like to frame their stories in, to sell back to us as our story that we tell ourselves is our story, too:-)

The RATS in the Maze Realize All Experience is Itself & Become the STAR of Amazed Awareness?

Studio Jelly

Renaming project for Forest Ethics, 2015

‘Agenda 21’ and social media intelligence agency Storyful?

I guess we all like a good story and if someone isn't telling us one, we end up telling ourselves one it seems, hey Chris?-)
Coffee and the Siren's Song

Strategy, brand discovery, 2012–2013

In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is King?-)

DC Entertainment hunger relief campaign, 2012

Logotype design and creative development, 2016

Joe Staples/Have a Nice Idea

Creative strategy & consultation

Heeeeeerrrre's Jelly?

So, I guess when it comes to stories that we like to tell ourselves the truth is somewhere in the middle:-)