It Takes A Village

Yesterday, I picked up a new order of Latitude28 t-shirts from Danny, the guy that makes them.

The shirts are great. Black, with the Latitude28 red-and-white logo jumping off the front. (I took a quick pic so you can see one.)

Danny produces quality stuff. On these shirts, the vinyl logo has height and sheen; you can feel the texture on top of the soft cotton t-shirt fabric.

Unpacking the box of shirts got me thinking about Danny. He’s been a Latitude28 “background” person since the inception of this group. He designed the logo in 2018 when the band was a birdlet getting ready to fly. He designs the standup banners that accompany us to events and shows. The billboard graphics are all his work. He created the cover of our first album, “Living Magic.” He produces the band jackets and t-shirts in all their iterations. He creates images for our websites. He builds every new flyer that promotes our Facebook Live shows. And if all that wasn’t enough, he’s now setting up servers for our reality show project.

The thing is, not many of us in the band family ever see Danny. He’s truly behind the scenes. He does all this work that contributes to the image, promotion, and exposure of the band, but some in Latitude28 have never even met him.

My thoughts about Danny led to thoughts about other people that are part of the Latitude28 enterprise. (Yeah, it is that, an enterprise. What started as simply a band in someone’s garage has grown into this constantly evolving entity. Every day it seems like a new vertical is being added; another platform here; a new project there.)

The musicians and vocalists are the public faces of Latitude28. Surrounding them, figuratively, is everyone else. All the Dannys of their sectors–the people who find the gigs, produce the reality show, video the trips, drive the buses, lock in sponsors, book the flights, engineer the sound, set up the stage, rig the screens, inflate the thundersticks, get the giveaways to the shows, produce the newsletter, build the websites, provide life coaching.

I mean, look at that list. That’s a lot of people doing a lot of things.

Which brings me to the title of this blog: It Takes A Village.

Do you know where that phrase comes from? I had to look it up. The whole thing is, “It takes a village to raise a child.” It’s an African proverb. It means that for children to become their complete best, they require the love, knowledge, and contribution of a whole community.

I feel like it’s the same way with Latitude28. It requires the love, knowledge, and contribution of a whole community to execute everything that this brand is becoming.

Thanks to all the Dannys of this enterprise for being the village–for lending your skills and talents so that Latitude28 can become its complete best.

Thanks for reading! –Kim

Featured photo by Adrianna Van Groningen on Unsplash