It is no small feat to capture the passion, principals, mission, romance and eye appeal by the initial visionary's standards within a digital graphic.
Cowboys and horsemen are already particular in how they go about their daily routine and work with their stock, nonetheless when analyzing a graphic that will be a big part of the public image of their outfit. Having spent many hours looking at different ideas, brainstorming my own, critiquing the posture of a certain horse's head, the angle at which its eye sat and so on, I had settled for logos along the way but none of them had fully encompassed what I wanted them to capture. One day when sitting down with Maredith Davis Design, the pieces started to come together and build the foundation for the 'brand' we have today.
During my time in grade school, I had the opportunity to live overseas in mainland China. Over the course of two years I learned the language, made friends I still keep in touch with today and memories I regularly reflect on. This led me to find the Chinese characters for the word, "Foundation" as I had a feeling the 'foundation' of this character would be something I could incorporate. Sure enough.
基础
Jīchǔ
The base of 'Jī' was the just what I as hoping for. A strong three tier base creating a sturdy foundation.
The element of have 3 tiers was extremely important to me, as the horsemanship I have fallen in love with, admire, respect, aspire to learn, understand and teach have several teachings involving three base principals.
'Time. Feel. Balance.'
'Observe. Remember. Compare.'
Perhaps a few of you have heard of the Horsemen, Tom & Bill Dorrance as well as Ray Hunt.
From this point, Maredith Davis Design took full reign. They recreated the character I identified I wanted to incorporate and intertwined their ideas based on their own understanding of what would make this logo uniquely ours. From ensuring balance throughout the image to coordinating color combinations, fonts and so much more detail far beyond my own personal level of expertise, every detail MDD added to this project made a world of difference.
To say we were at peace with finally laying eyes on something that fully encompassed who we are is an understatement. Our desire to have something that stood for more than the words 'Colton Woods Horsemanship' was at the forefront throughout the entire project. I may add that in the back of our minds as well was the functionality of being able to utilize this logo as an actual freeze brand at some point down the road. This stressed the importance of it needing to be:
Clean, Balanced, Simplistic. Functional. and most of all Meaningful.
Everything we do here at Colton Woods Horsemanship has a purpose. From how we clean our stalls, to the time we put into creating free educational videos for you to every aspect of our logo. If it does not have purpose, our horses do not understand it and neither do we. So I sure hope this little bit of insight sheds light on part of the foundation of Colton Woods Horsemanship.
P.S.
I am a very DIY kind of guy. Now that does not mean I'm great at the things I attempt to DIY, because honestly the primary reason I do DIY projects is because it is cheaper... Well its only cheaper in the short run. Looking down the road those cheap fixes for the short term never last. So... Consult a Professional, especially when it comes to graphic design, web design and all things digital that have to do with your company. We have been blessed to work with Maredith Davis Design from the creation of this very website to digital promotional images and our logo as well as marketing materials.