Its a new look!

As you may, or may not have noticed, I have changed the Diabetes Advocacy logo.  It will appear on the website in the coming months (as the site undergoes a face lift) but I thought that I would launch it here first. 

Some of you may be looking at this new logo and wondering what sort of drugs I was on when I said "Yeah! That's what I want to use!"  You may be thinking that I was exceptionally sleep deprived and forgot what sort of a website I was running at the time I accepted the image. 

Or perhaps you never really got the first logo and figured, well its still just as crazy as before so what's the big deal?

The original logo had a phoenix wearing a grey diabetes ribbon with a map of Canada in the background.  The diabetes ribbon was an obvious connection as was the map when you know that I live in Canada.  The meaning behind the phoenix was not as easily interpreted.

The phoenix is a bird that rises up from the ashes.  Its splendor is amazing especially when looking back at where it came from. Yes, it eventually burns out and becomes ash again but it will always rise again.  This has become symbolic with my life and more importantly with life with diabetes.  We have days that are good, days that are amazing and days that we feel that we have crashed and burned.  For me the phoenix is a symbol of hope, because no matter what we will rise up from the ashes and be even more amazing and beautiful than before!

The new logo focuses more on the phoenix.  Its power and its beauty.  Diabetes is a nightmare but the friendships it has brought us are more beautiful than any of the ugliness.  Diabetes brings hardships but it has also given me a strength to challenge issues and create change where I never would have gone before.

I have also given up the grey ribbon in place of the blue circle.  I love the grey ribbon, not for its dark color but the drop of blood was a real reminder of what our loved ones deal with each day.  Despite my attachment to that symbol, there is a movement for diabetes to band together and use one symbol--the blue circle that was adopted by the UN.  There is a renewed desire to make this symbol as recognizable as the pink ribbon is for breast cancer. 

I have no idea if this will happen but grey is making way for blue.  We see blue candles lit in memory of who have lost their battle with diabetes. There are the campaigns to light up your home/town blue on  World Diabetes day in November.  Grey is drab, blue offers hope so I have traded in the grey ribbon worn by my phoenix and instead encircled him in blue. 

With that in mind, it was time for me to change as well. It was time for a new logo, a new sense of purpose, and a new face forward in our rollercoaster life with Type 1 diabetes.