Hello.Today we reached the point where all the materials for the magazine project that I been mentioning previously are nearly ready.Articles are written,page layout is provisionally agreed on, photographs and stats are prepared. There is only one challenge yet to be met,-the cover. Of course once the content is ready, something like a cover seems less difficult or important. However it truly is very significant as it's colors,size, text and even font that used in this text has to represent and lead to the rest of the magazine.Cover is like a gate that leads into the garden, or if magazine itself to be a castle, then it's a bridge.

So, what our gate or bridge should look like, what it should be made off, and most importantly,-what message it suppose to convey? My colleague, who works on a visual concept of the edition asked me to think about a few ideas for the cover. My imagination is wilde, to such a point that sometimes I have to restrain it.That explains why to start with I was thinking of mermaids and the images of seabed with coral forests and glittering clouds of tiny tropical fish...BAD IDEA!For sure, and I would never dream to actually offering it for a consideration. But having said that, still nothing prevents us to address the question of the cover design in a truly creative way.

It is surely tempting to just scraud the magazine cover in a really beautiful image of a harbour or an open sea with the distant ships on a blue horison.But ALL maritime publications do that,-our's has to has a certain message attached to it. Simply pretty picture is not enough.We are helping people, we are a charity, we care, we do have compassion.As if to illustrate this on my aid comes half-forgotten image of greek statue from the mythology book which in my childhood my grandmother used to read to me regularly.The statue was representing a little boy carried to safety by a dolphin.Of course, both boy and a dolphin were made of marble, but they looked so unbeliavably alive, and waves underneath them so real and powerful that the image stayed with me forever.

Shall we use it? Aren't we often in the position of this magnificent and intelligent sea creature that almost instinctively saves those who are lost in a voletile waves? I am trying to find the image, I look through the books of ancient mythology, I search on the net, but keep finding the wrong boys that ride wrong dolphins. These boys most of the time fight their dolphins, or the dolphins themselves look sinister, more like a nemeless seamonsters. But this memorable statue from my childhood, I just cannot find.

Well, pephaps it some sort of a sign that that particular image should not be used.Nothing happens without a reason, at least that's what I believe.Therefore another image comes to my mind,-a human hand holding up a ship model above the tempestuous sea.That could probably work. It's a matter of taking a few photographs and then overlaying them in Dream Weaver or Photo Shop. But what about a deadline, would we have time to do it? Would people want to? I don't know, but I will offer the idea. And, yes, I could draw it myself, but perhaps drawing on the cover and only photographs inside the issue could clush with each other. But we'll see, and hopefully sea as well with people for whom our magazine will be interesting.

Hi! Today I was looking at different possibilities for the layout of our second Annual Report. We were given four choices. The forth version attracts me the most; it is not eccentrically creative like Circus de Soleil's poster, but at the same time not tediously businesslike. As a background various shades of blue are used. It makes the page look alive and obviously reminds a reader about the sea that contains all possible shades of this cosmic color.

To me symbols and colors that represent organisation are extremely important. Even a style of font has to be taken into consideration, even spaces between the pharagraphs...And it's not just my artistic background, but a simple fact that the numbers of maritime organisations are growing and in the emerging paper ocean of their publications, our's has to stand out. New maritime organisations like young singers need to find their voices. Our's is there already, but now it has to be expressed visually.

ISAN as a charity is unique, it's goals and reasons are very distinguished from the rest of similar organisations. But now we are in the process of putting this "uniqueness" on paper. We need to show that it is a serious professional organisation with the heart and a real compassion for people who require it's help. Of course the mentioned above quolities by any means are not the opposite ones and surely can peacefully co-exist in the frame of unifying them style. However,making of these "frame" takes time and effort.

It is good that people who work here have different skills,cultural and professional backgrounds. That means that their imaginations work differently, they have diffent sense of style, they like different things. It could create slight problems, but at the same time most definitely will make the project very interesting. And hopefully when one day you, the reader, will see the copy of our Report amungst the materials of some maritime event, you will pick it up intrigued by it's striking design.

Hello! Today is relatively calm Saturday,-we had only one call. Yes, when I arrived at work there were few follow-ups waiting to be done, but they couldn't possibly create a proper theme for today's blog. But the call was significant. Seafarer was nervous, sometimes angry, and yet his manners were absolutely despicable. He knew that I was trying to help and that despite the fact that the core of the problem is his health, both him and I have to be patient. We need to keep our cool to deal with the matter succesfully, otherwise...

Otherwise he won't be able to give me all the detailes of the information I need, he won't remember names and locations, diagnosis that doctors of the foreign contry gave him. I, in my turn won't be able to hear him out as well as I should, won't be capable of recording his words correctly and think thoroughly about the ways of helping him.

It may sound strange, but I suddenly realised that sometimes this job teaches me that in order to be truly helpful and compationate I need to restrain my compation!It's not a paradox, but a very practical and perhaps only possible solution for dealing with some situations we are presented here in Seafarer Help. This inconventional restriction has nothing to do with cruelty or lack of empathy. For me human emotions here are transformed into actions and expressed through some very grounded and hopefully helpful steps towards the possible solution. Still words like - "I understand"-or-"I am sorry to hear that"- are essentual.

But as I already mentioned above,one shouldn't go overboard with expression of their compassion. A light touch of human warmth is enough. It really works and goes a long way with people who ask us for help. Being strong men and women they don't want to be pityed. Most of the time they seek genuine understanding and of course real effective solutions.

Hopefully we will be able to provide just that to a called with despicable manners who contacted us today.