I will not go into specifics as I have had not personally witnessed the person cured by her. Seeing is believing, I guess.
Anyway, on May 6, 2008, she was instructed by an inner voice to summon me to resolve her problem of logo design. Before you think she is nutty, do note that she is a very successful business woman who has a no-nonsense honest approach to business.
At her office, she showed me a few examples of blood stained papers with various logo designs proposed by the staff together with her. Apparently over the past 9 days. Blood stains kept appearing on the papers when the designs were proposed.
Well, I kept an open mind as I know she is a is a religious and very kind person. Otherwise I would not want to associate with her for the past 5 years. I had met many wicked people with dark forces in their personality in this world, having lived so far, for 58 years.
Why did I say she is a kind person? I just give one example. One day, a black stray dog with the skin of her forelegs slashed and the side of her body cut presented outside her house. She said: "There are still such people in Singapore who is cruel to dogs!" During the house-call, I commented: "It could be a car accident."
She asked me to treat this dog doubting that the split wounds on its right foreleg could be stitched. She had her own 2 dogs and cats. S could just phone the animal shelter to take this stray away and put to sleep. But she sought veterinary surgery for the black dog.
Now, I had digressed. Back to her office. I sat on the chair facing her and looked at the logo presentation. Time was short as there was an important tender. The new logo was needed as too many fake products had been produced using her previous logo.
There were at least 3 parts to this logo design - brand name, company name and "by Juliet" as far as I could see when I arrived at her office around 12.30 p.m.
My role was to position the brand name (Centre), company name (Solaria) and the "by Juliet" phase in the logo. All these 3 names just mentioned are not the actual names but are used for illustration purposes to aid the understanding of my story.
The company staff had brainstormed for the around the past 9 days. The staff just could not get the font size, style and height and positioning correct. This was proven by the appearance of blood stains on logo drafts onto the paper of the proposers. The lady showed me the evidence.
To me this was an incredible tale. Blood stains appearing on papers out of the air? This is pure science fiction. It is scientifically impossible. I mean, air molecules transform to blood and present itself on paper. This is as pure science fiction such as the Transformers. Science fantasy like Star Trek where people can be tele-transported from one area to another without dying was just that - fantasy and science fiction.
I have the fortune to live to 58 years old and if you were to tell me that real blood materialises out of thin air, I will think you are nutty. It is just scientifically impossible. But there are many events and things which are not explained by pure science and doctors.
At her office, I asked for a dictionary to verify the exact meaning of the brand name "Centre" which had great significance to the business. I knew what the brand name means when the lady asked me.
The British version of the brand name is "centre". The American word would be "center". I propose using the American version as it would be easier to pronounce as she is in a global business. The lady and her staff had not thought that there was an American version and decided to adopt this version. This was one of my contributions as desired by the higher powers as evident by the non-appearance of blood in the finished logo presentation at the end of the day.
I really could not think how I could be of any help to her in logo design. I am a veterinarian. I could treat the black dog and she had recovered and is well loved by this lady and her family.
In any case, I asked for photocopies of the logo to be done so that I could write and position the company (Solaria) and "by Juliet"
In my first draft, I positioned the "Solaria" on the top of the logo. Several small red blood spots appeared on the lady's glass pane covering her table top. The lady shook her head. I changed the position of the "Company Name" still on top of the logo. Two small blood spots appeared on my white shirt and the lady pointed to them. The lady said that my positioning was not approved.
I stopped this aspect and wrote the "by Juliet" onto the lower part of the logo. Somehow the company staff had never thought of this position. I cannot recall why the lady said this position was all right as you can imagine --- I was distracted by the appearance out of thin air, of blood on her table and on my white T-shirt and right hand at various times on that afternoon. I presumed approval by the higher powers and by her would mean that no blood appeared when I recommended the position of the "by Juliet".
Now, where to position the "Solaria"? The lady closed her eyes. Then she wrote it at the bottom of the logo. She said it was approved. "Thank you for your time, Dr Sing." the lady said. "I have to go to the graphics artist to finalise the logo." I offered to accompany her and her general manager to the graphics artist at Sim Lim Square to get a professional to incorporate the revisions and finalise her logo.
Suddenly one of her staff came in with a printed out copy of the company logo. The English man had gone to another graphic artist in the morning on his own initiative. He had asked the artist to modify some aspects of the logo design and now presented his proposal in the printed paper. This was his version of the logo. He placed it onto the boss' table as the boss was in a rush to go out. He did this without the consent of the lady boss who had not asked him to seek outsider opinion .
The lady took her handbag and both she and the general manager exited to meet the graphics artist. Now, I was curious. What about this Englishman's modified logo? I just had to go to her table to see it. Fresh blood splashes of around 3 cm long marked the logo in the centre. The boss had seen it and had not commented on it.
To cut an incredible long story short as the story would fill a
hundred pages, blood spots appeared on the lady, her general manager
and on myself so many times on that afternoon as we got the graphics
artist to amend the logo design so many times. Few small spots of
blood materialised on top of the graphic designer office outside the
office too. The graphics designer was a patient young man.We spent some 2 hours or more doing this re-design of the logo with various amendments. We left him so that he could have a late lunch and we went to lunch at the Sim Lim eatery across the road.
I gave so many advices on the font size, the height, the balance of the wordings. I had read a few design and print magazines in the past months at the National Library and so had a bit of knowledge on logo design. The lady and her general manager offered their suggestions too.
Once, the lady pointed to me that the graphics artist had a blood stain on his right elbow, signifying that he was correct in the design in the computer. We went for a late lunch across the shop and continued discussing about the logo. Blood spots appeared on my right hand as I sat on the dining table while the two went to order food. As I am right handed, I could not click a picture with my left hand. My digital camera's viewfinder was malfunctioning. What to do? The general manager asked what I was doing and offered to take one picture for me.
The blood was fresh red and clotted fast. There are many more appearances of blood as we talked about the logo. As we left the graphics artist, I said to the lady and her general manager that they had a round blood clot each, in the middle and on top of the forehead, near the hairline, around 0.8 cm in diameter. This was nothing new to them. The lady asked me to check myself saying: "You have one too." I believed her and did not immediately look for a mirror to see it. (Later when I was back at her office, I went to the gents just to confirm what she said. I had a red circle of blood in the centre of my forehead).
Back at her office at around 6 pm, I discussed further about the logo presentation on the product itself for silk-screening. There could only be one white colour on the black cloth background for silk screening of the logo onto the product. The problem was that the Brand Name is designed to be written across the logo drawing. So, the middle alphabet of this brand name would be rendered invisible if the solid logo is white. The white alphabets of the brand name would be visible on the black background except for the middle alphabet which would be rendered invisible since the solid log is white. The general manager suggested an outline of the logo drawing.
I suggested making the colour of the middle alphabet black but the manager said it would not look nice since the other letters would be white. In one of the versions I now cannot remember, a blood spot of around 1 cm long suddenly appeared on my right hand during one of my suggestions and the lady confirmed that I was on the right track. But which track was right?
One suggestion that was on the wrong track was my idea of putting a white square as a border surrounding the logo. I used a photocopied page. Cut out a white square enclosing the logo to demonstrate on the product.
Immediately an oval red blood stain of around 1 cm x 0.5 cm appeared onto the logo itself. In front of my eyes. This signified that my idea was unacceptable. Further finer amendments were suggested and the graphics artist would have to do a lot of work. There were so many versions. Before I left the office, two fine spots appeared on the right side of a neat version of the logo printed out by the graphics artists. The logo colour was orange while the letters were black and overall, it looks neat and simple. Good for the letterhead and name card.
The graphics artist had inserted a world map he took from a clip art and placed it onto the logo to signify international business. I said to the lady: "You can be sued for infringement of copyrights and be sued for millions if you use this world map in your logo." So she decided to take out the world map. There were various suggestions by me and changes too long to write about. Blood spots appeared on the lady's right hand, her forehead and below her neck in the midline at various times in the afternoon as we tried to finalise the logo design. A logo is an important part of branding.
For readers not familiar with branding, many people buy a product based on the logo if the product is of high quality. Thus many fakes are produced to take advantage of the branded logo and deceive the consumer as had happened for this lady.
I know readers will not believe this story. It is incredible but true. I did not go around snapping pictures as proof to substantiate as it would be discourteous to do such a thing.
I do have one picture of my right hand with the blood just appearing, taken by the General Manager. I will not believe this story if anyone has had related it to me. It is just incredible and so I don't expect the reader to believe too.
The above is a picture of my hand taken by the general manager. The brand name, company name and "by Juliet" related to the logo design had been changed in this story. The logo was approved by 6 p.m in the sense that there was no blood splashes on the printed version.
I did look at the plastic folders of the other versions in the lady's Mercedes when we went back to the office. The other versions had blood splashes onto the logo. Blood appearing out of thin air. Blood appearing onto real people. Blood onto logo designs not approved by the Higher Power. Who are the Higher Powers? Why me? Why did 3 of us have a circle of blood in the centre of the forehead above the eyes in the afternoon. What was the significance?
It is one of those incredible but true stories that is hard to believe and harder to write about. Wait, there is a Part 2 as well. See Blood Out of Thin Air - Part 2