All posts by Carol Wiley

From Sketch to Final: a look at the logo design process – Part 2


Blog 2 of 2 in a series

Horsepower Solutions is a organization providing EQUINE ASSISTED TEAM & LEADERSHIP TRAINING (Workplace Training). The equine assisted activities will be offered by my client to companies or corporations as part of their leadership and team training processes. Typically, the participants conduct an activity on the ground with the horses and then examine the patterns that emerge from the responses of the horses in the interaction, giving them kinesthetic learning. How individuals approach the activity carries back to the workplace in new awareness of, and change in, productive behaviors that enhance the bottom line.

 

"Kinesthetic learning, or tactile learning, is a learning style in which learning takes place by the students carrying out physical activities, rather than listening to a lecture or watching demonstrations."     – Wikipedia

Positioning Statement

The message strategy interview with the client uncovered the following aspects: communicate – lead – learn as you go, real time. Experience improvements immediately. Change how you react. Feedback in the moment. Shifts made to accomplish the deep work. Focus. Be better with your TEAM. Learn how to read people. Be aware of your actions. Discover communication holes.

Here are a just a few of my concept sketches to incorporate some of those key words and ideas:

 

Below are several rendered concepts that I presented to the client:

 

I had fun creating the “horse with the human legs” concept, but an unusual image is riskier when you need to appeal to the many ranks in the corporate world. In certain situations a clever/unique logo might just be the way to go.

For the final logo design, a combination of the two puzzle piece concepts was chosen. The client liked how the elements fit together and also liked that the horse’s head resembled a knight (chess piece) to signify team strategies.

From Sketch to Final: a look at the logo design process – Part 1


Blog 1 of 2 in a series

The Soaring Into Greatness brand was developed for a speaker and author who is totally blind and knows about light and dark. Many people allow their fears to stop them from experiencing life to the fullest. However, this is not the case with Gail Hamilton. As a result, she inspires and encourages her audiences… to live unstoppable, unforgettable, and unbelievable lives.

Positioning Statement

The client’s message strategy interview uncovered the following key words: soar; live; expand; love; joy; fly; passion; creator; empower; artist; music. To boost her speaking career, her logo needed to tell her story and impress those that would hire her to speak.

Concept Sketches

Here are some initial sketches that I chose to render more fully.

One secret about Gail’s compelling presentations is she unexpectedly breaks into song. She’s a talented vocalist as well as a powerful speaker. I was intent on creating visuals that were joyful, empowering, and included the elements of her life, such as her beloved service dog and music symbols.

Below are two of several logo concepts I presented to the client.

 

 

During the review of the concepts, I learned that the client wanted to emphasize freedom, and the flight to empowerment, and keep the singing as a surprise (shhh) — this meant not including musical elements in the graphic. After another round of exploration, the final design ended up being a combination of the two concepts shown above.

Final Logo Design

Nature’s Design for Farming Biodynamic


Part 2 of 2

[caption id="attachment_1106" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Sheep grazing among the fruit trees, contained by portable electric fencing[/caption]
Apricot Lane Farms

After I watched the movie The Biggest Little Farm at the Boulder Film Festival, I felt joy and hope, because I saw a wonderful message (and a heartwarming documentary) that farming can be productive and lucrative the old fashioned way. It’s real, and I set out to see it first hand.

Apricot Lane Farms is located 40 miles north of Los Angeles. I scheduled a tour that would coincide with my annual trip west. Setting out early from San Diego to beat the LA traffic, my daughter (who had recently studied Permaculture) and I arrived at the farm to join a group of about 40 people for the 1:00 pm tour.

The best way to explain Apricot Lane Farms is to watch the movie. In short, a young couple (and their dog) purchased a nearly dead, dusty orchard. With the help of several investors and the expertise of a biodynamic farmer named Alan York, they were able to transform the 200 acres into a lush, productive oasis.

Biodynamic farming is the precursor to organic and
sustainable farming. It was developed in Germany in the
early 1920s by philosopher Dr. Rudolf Steiner. Dr. Steiner believed
that the soil, plants, animals and everything in the
solar system is interconnected.

Diversity

The El Toledo Coffee plantation (part 1 of my blog) sees ongoing benefits from their diverse plantings. Furthering that theme, Apricot Lane Farms’ repertoire includes farm animals. They have pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, guinea hens, horses, highland cattle, and a Swiss dairy cow. The land consists of biodynamic certified avocado and lemon orchards, a vegetable garden, pastures, and over 75 varieties of stone fruit (fruit with a pit).

The Vision

The vision, in part: Plant fruit trees in artful, curved rows, etched into the hills to avoid water runoff. Allow a lush undergrowth of native grasses... no bare dirt to be found! Make soil quality the most important goal. Build a very very large worm shed to transform decaying organic substances into rich soil enhancers.

[gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="1101,1105,1103,1104"]

The Process

Sheep are moved from crop area to crop area using portable electric fencing. Chicken houses have wheels so they can be easily moved. The rotation of the larger animals aerates the soil with their hooves. All of the farm animals enjoy free range pasture, while fertilizing the land. The mini ecosystem starts to emerge, attracting insect-eating and predator birds, and other beneficial wildlife.

Challenges

The Biggest Little Farm movie depicts an idealistic scene one moment, then shows us the horrors of wildfires and flooding rains the next moment. Coyotes and gophers are constant threats to the farm animals and the crops... but ultimately... with patience, nature provides solutions. Not by interfering, but by allowing, the farmers create an ecosystem—a beautiful design worth sharing!  Check out their website, here.

 

Nature’s Design for Farming Coffee


Part 1 of 2

Recently I visited two family farms that are having success with mimicking the biological balance found in our earth’s ecosystem. I love to share stories about how people are experimenting with, and rediscovering nature’s design.

[caption id="attachment_1056" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] The Roaster[/caption]
El Toledo Coffee Plantation - Practicing Permaculture in Costa Rica

If you visit Costa Rica, a trek to Atenas is well worth your time. Not only is Atenas known for it’s nearly perfect weather, it is also a friendly town located centrally in the mountains. Coffee plantations are scattered over many steep hillsides, but the El Toledo plantation looks quite different because it follows the philosophy of Permaculture.

"Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than
against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation
rather than protracted and thoughtless labor;
and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions,
rather than treating any area as a single product system.”
—Bill Mollison

While most coffee plantations in the Atenas area are well-groomed mono-crops, El Toledo has welcomed certain native trees and plants, such as bromeliads and citronella, that have unique properties that repel unwanted pests and insects. This helps El Toledo maintain a chemical-free environment. They also raise ginger, garlic, mangoes, bananas, and other tropical produce. They have found that the shade and root structures from  companion plants increase soil quality and retain moisture.

As farmers know, the weather can make or break a season. When one crop struggles, another may thrive. So a variety of income sources is yet another benefit of the diverse plantings. Mimicking Mother Nature's diversity seems to help beat the odds for healthy food production.

[gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="1064,1069,1066,1067,1087,1055"]

Healthy farming was the only option

When the father of the family farm developed cancer a decade ago, the plantation was in jeopardy of shutting down. So the son set out to learn as much as possible about how to take over the farm—without using chemicals (which they believe was the cause of the father's sickness). The learning never stopped. The educational tours of their Permaculture farm are extremely popular and there is a demand for El Toledo organic coffee at the markets. Now the family is experimenting with sustainable low waste practices: creating wines and teas from the coffee fruit, using less water for removing the fruit from the beans, and composting.

When I toured the farm in January 2019, the father was actively involved with the farm—I watched him roast coffee beans to perfection. (Did you know that the darker the coffee beans are roasted, the less caffeine they contain?) This family redesigned the El Toledo plantation using Mother Nature as a guide, and they are thriving as a result!

 

one moment at a time


Be Fully Alive is the brand name for a therapist who uses a holistic and mindfulness approach.
WileyDesign's goal: create an identity design for Be Fully Alive.
Using the information received from a Message Strategy meeting with the client, I created not only the logo design but the tagline: one moment at a time. The key word for the identity turned out to be “ALIVE.”  Vibrant colors, nature, art, and a sense of movement were important visuals for this brand.
Next step: make the website come alive, by creating a color scheme and selecting themed imagery to give the brand a consistent look.

A Design for Your Next Meal


Everyone who eats food must experience working on a farm, I thought.
Did you ever take something for granted, and when you realized its importance, your world view changed?
How would you feel if your local grocery stores closed down, even for a month? Scary thought?

I had a backyard garden for years and loved to grow flowers and vegetables, but it was always for the joy of a few fresh beans or several weeks of picking the coveted heirloom tomatoes. I never took much time to consider how I might eat abundantly off my own little garden and preserve enough food to nourish me through the winter, until I had the pleasure of working on a community farm this summer. Wow, everyone who eats food must experience working on a farm, I thought.

My work exchange for a share of food was only 1-1/2 hours a week, but I learned a lot on those Thursday mornings. North Field Farm covers about 2 acres, not including the green house... enough to have long multiple rows of a large variety of vegetables, herbs and berries. During summer's intense June heat, my work might entail harvesting greens at 7 am, keeping the pickings in the shade so they wouldn't wilt before they got rinsed and refrigerated. On cold fall mornings my goal was to protect my fingers from frost bite as I snapped off crispy rain drenched kale leaves or lifted beets out of the cold earth. [caption id="attachment_1012" align="alignleft" width="350"] If you find and remove a Tomato Hornworm you are a hero. They are hard to see and very destructive to the plants.[/caption] I love it. I love watching the plants grow... and then eating my share of what I pick. I know local and organic is best, but when you actually work on a small farm, and bring home the vegetables, it makes an indelible mark on the psyche. I'm not saying farming is easy. Hardly. But if it became a shared lifestyle, couldn't it be rewarding, healthy and practical? Can't we all learn how to work the local farm as we engage in a memory from our predecessors? I am hoping the title of CEO of gardening becomes the next hot career choice. What if our neighbors became as devoted to organic gardening, permaculture, orchards, hydroponic or vertical gardening as they are to mowing the lawn? I bet the way they think about their food would change, like mine did.         [ This is part 3 of a 3-part blog on “design and community living” ]