Starting something new is always a scary venture but with hard work and patience, it can be very rewarding.  Rick and I didn’t know where we’d be a year from then, but being here now.. we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!

How It All Started

First we needed a name.  A name that would stand out, be inviting, unique, and simple.  A word that would roll off the tongue with ease and sound sweet to the ears.  We searched day and night for ideas in our day to day lives, upon waking up, driving to work, while eating, constantly looking for ideas.  We were at our wits end until we asked Darsh (my brother) for help and he asked us one simple question.

What do you want your company to represent?

Represent?  What?  I personally didn’t get it but then it made more sense.  What words would define our company.  Rick and I did what the most logical thing to do was; so we looked at ourselves and jotted down words that described us.  We came up with words like: honest, funny, creative, silly, and tall. We took this further and came up with words we wanted our company to represent: simple, trustworthy, imagination, solid, firm, concrete, caring, and open. Darsh looked it over and added a few more words:karma, heart, and will.

With a big list of words in front of us, we started putting the words together to create more words.  I don’t recall most of them but originally, we blended karma andimagination to came up with Karmagination. Yea, try to say that ten times real fast!  At the time we were satisfied, we were content, but when we slept on it, we realized this was just way too long.

“Thanks for calling Karmagination.”

“What’s the name of your company?”

That doesn’t roll off the tongue with ease and it definitely didn’t sound sweet to the ears!  We loved the direction we were going but needed something simpler.  Karma and imagination are two great words that we adored and the shorter word for imagination is imagine and this is how Karmagine was born.

Rebranded

We had only one direction we wanted to go with Karmagine and that was weddings.  We got our logo designed with that detail in mind so it had to be ethnic, a little on the feminine side and look attractive.  Which brings us to our current logo that you’re all well aware of and recognize.

We didn’t think these details would bind us if we chose to venture into a different creative direction; but it did.  A year later Rick and I sat down to rethink our brand and after a month of many revisions and a lot of brain storming, we have created what we feel is much cleaner, mainstream brand that is future proof.  Not only is it much simpler but it represents us and our core beliefs rather than what we do.

Two breaks above the K.  Two partners. Two words that represent the foundation of Karmagine.

Happy One Year Anniversary!

If we look at the lives of children, we can say that they only know how to express love in the purest form. Even if mom and dad yelled at them, the moment mom or dad gave them a hug, they would let it go and return the hug and continue expressing their love to anything and everything. Do you remember loving a toy so much even though that toy never expressed it back to you? It was always one sided but that never stopped us.

As adults in relationships, I’ve learned that somewhere we decided that expressing love is a two way street; no longer one way. When did this happen? When did expressing what is natural to us become reliant on someone else? I see a lot of couples that are perfect for each other but they spend more energy on resisting their need to express love to each other than to actually express it. That doesn’t make any sense at all, but a lot of people are a victim to this.

It’s not your fault, it not anyone’s fault really. We’re all emotional beings and emotionally we want to feel protected and safe. This didn’t happen in your first relationship in high school, or because of your first break up. This idea of safety occurred to you all the way back in your youth, possibly as far back as kindergarten.

Our first relationship was with our parents, that’s the root. As babies learning, we didn’t care if mom got mad at us when we dropped something or made a mess or upset our parents. Sure mom would yell at us but then we’d forget about it and continue expressing love. However, as soon as the idea of thoughts entered our minds, we created beliefs. Now if we did something that upset mom or dad, expressing love became harder because we got yelled at. Our thoughts told us that in order to express love to mom or dad, mom or dad need to be in a receiving state of mind. Very rarely will you see a child embrace his/her parents if they are being yelled at. It’s in those critical moments that we tell ourselves that we can only express love when someone else is expressing love to us.

Fast forward to present relationships and you can see the same thought process. You might even consciously be aware of it when your significant other is having a bad day, that expressing love to them might feel almost awkward. Our thoughts don’t mean harm, but they do cause harm. It’s difficult to dissolve a belief that’s deeply rooted but being aware is the first step.

Summer is arriving, the weather is beautiful, wedding season is approaching fast. Take the time to express love to the ones you love, even at times when you might feel it’s a one way street. It’s in those moments that love is unconditional. I invite you to express your love to anyone and everything as you once did and as you see children doing everyday.

With love, JD