So maybe you’ve heard about this War On Christmas thing. As for us, we remain neutral, like Switzerland. But there is an up with which we will not put. Brand standards, people. Look, we don’t care if you fill Santa with cheap vodka or pit him against Jesus in a no-holds-barred cage match.

Leaving less than 1/4″ of clear space around the logo pisses Santa off, boys and girls.

But we do care if you don’t maintain the Jolly Fat Man’s brand standards. Which is why we’re damn glad the fine folks at QuietroomUK have produced The Definitive Brand Guide To *Santa.*

Download it, learn it, live it.

And if you’re thinking about deviating from the brand nostalgia, remember, he sees you when you’re sleeping.

Last week, Fast Company covered our client Proximity Designs, a non-profit design venture that designs products to ultimately help poor farmers in Myanmar. You can read all about it right here.

Okay, so we weren’t jumping up and down when we read the headline, but the article goes a long way to acknowledge a socially responsible company that is drastically improving lives by changing their economics.

It’s a market- vs. charity-based approach and it’s working. A powerful way to lift people out of poverty is to inspire their entrepreneurial drive with moneymaking products. More about how the approach is working can be found here.

Proximity recently received the Skoll Award For Social Entrepreneurship, an award given annually to a small number of social entrepreneurs who are solving the world’s most pressing problems.

Proximity founders Debbie Aung Din and Jim Taylor are indeed doing that, proximate to their customers. They listen to their customers. They even moved nearer to do so.

Listening. We like that.

Avinger debuts at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium in San Francisco this week with a little Mortar magic and pro cyclist Christian Vande Valde.

Mortar’s design team is helping Avinger bust into the world-famous TCT conference with a magnificent booth (Booth #1536) and some pretty sweet jackets to match.

Avinger will host a TCT Breakfast Meeting on Friday November 11 at 6:30 AM transmitting a case live from Germany highlighting a Chronic Total Occlusion Crossing using the Direction OCT Guided CTO Catheter, Ocelot.

Hosting the case live will be Dr. Arne Schwindt and Avinger CEO John B. Simpson, PhD, MD. Our own Todd Ransick will be eating bratwurst while streaming the feed from Munster, Germany to the event here in San Francisco.

Pro cyclist Christian Vande Valde will also be a guest speaker at the breakfast, drawing the connection between the spinning wheels of pro bikes and the spinning tip of the Ocelot catheter.

On Saturday, November 11, 2011, Christian will join Avinger and all attendees of the TCT Breakfast Meeting who wish to participate in a bike ride in Woodside, CA to promote PAD awareness through physical activity.

Avinger is excited to be a part of TCT, an event that pays homage to industry leaders who are dedicated to improving the survival and quality of life for people with cardiovascular disease through research and education.

And Mortar is excited, well, that Todd’s eating bratwurst.

The Mortar team presented creative concepts to Carondelet Health Network last week in Tucson, Arizona. To celebrate the beginning of our new relationship, we gave each member of Carondelet’s marketing team a potted plant to water and care for, a living symbol of the compassion they show each other and the community in their daily work. After a few days, Cindy Jordan’s plant was the first to start budding, a testament to her nurturing spirit. Congratulations, Cindy! Here’s to being well.