New Branding for Young Entrepreneurs Project!
New Logo Day…
The Blewett Conservation Society is a local non-profit organization that supports our mountain community in the areas of: the environment, the watersheds, and the community at large. Click here for more info and like their Facebook page to stay connected.
And then we self-published a book…
…and they have arrived!
“The Heart of a River” has arrived today, just in time for a book launch at tonight’s exhibition at Touchstones in Nelson, BC
“The Heart of a River” tells the story of the Columbia River – from its geological origins to the advent of dams and storage reservoirs. It is written in poetic prose and asks the reader to “imagine that you are water”…
When author Eileen Delehanty Pearkes showed the story to me in September, asking me to layout the book, I fell in love with what she had written and asked her if I could illustrate it. By time we sorted through finding a great printer, deciding on page count, size, paper etc, and coming to a 50/50 joint publisher agreement, I had a month to layout and illustrate the 45 page book. I illustrated for 30 days and 30 nights, page after page, with no time to imagine how the “big picture” would look. I had no time to map out an approach, discover visual themes, or orchestrate a visual crescendo. I just completely gave myself over to Eileen’s prose and hoped that page by page the words would take me visually where the book needed to go. I used all of my ammo – images from my own copyright designs, artwork from my childhood, website references to any kind of historical visuals I could find to interpret the story’s message with authenticity. At one point I felt like I was metaphorically in the river, floating along with the Columbia from its inception, through to the present, and wondering where its heart would lead me next. Even in the hours leading up to the final print deadline I had moments where I wondered if I would ever emerge. It was not until the last illustration was done that I felt myself surface and I even called Eileen to tell her that I was “out”. When she asked me about why I wanted to do this project I said “I felt like I wanted to give back to the river. So much of our mountain culture life is deeply connected to and dependent on water. Many of my projects are in some way connected to the Columbia – whether I am designing for a local business, creating advertising for tourism, promoting water conservation strategies, or encouraging habitat preservation.” I hope you get a chance to pick up a copy and enjoy this extraordinary poem Eileen has written. I hope I have done it some justice… Its a lovely story for people of any age to enjoy.
Books are $20 each and can be ordered directly from me here.
Or call to reserve your copy at 250.352.9697
We won an Award!
The Opening Night is tonight at Touchstones, Nelson – 6:30pm!
What is Roll on Columbia?
Roll On Columbia: Exploring the Landscape and Culture of the Columbia River Treaty explores the complex legacy of the 50 year-old Columbia River Treaty. With the treaty up for possible renewal or renegotiation in the near future, the exhibition provides present-day understanding of the region’s trans-boundary watershed ecosystem, a vast landscape draining water from B.C.’s Rocky Mountains to Astoria, Oregon.
What was the award that it won?
‘Roll on Columbia,’ a multi-format exhibit about the Columbia River Treaty won a prestigious national award for an exhibition from the Canadian Museums Association. The travelling exhibition is showing for the first time in Nelson, and the opening of the Exhibition is tonight!
Why did it win?
And then we published a book?
For the opening night of Roll On Columbia author and exhibition Curator Eileen Delehanty Pearkes decided to release a second edition of her book “The Heart of a River”. The idea seemed timely. There are so many ways to represent the Columbia River – through history, geography, politics and culture – The Heart of a River captures something completely different – what it is like to “be” the Columbia River.
When she approached Pinkdog Designs to layout the story for publication, I fell in love with Eileen’s poem. I had never read anything like it. I knew I wanted to illustrate her poem and Eileen bravely gave me full artistic license to do so.
“I felt like I wanted to give back to the river. So much of our mountain culture life is deeply connected to and dependent on water. Many of my projects are in some way connected to the Columbia – whether I am designing for a local business, creating advertising for tourism, promoting water conservation strategies, or encouraging habitat preservation.”
And so it came to be. The Heart of a River was reborn!
What Next?
Well… the books have arrived today and the show is tonight! We are doing our first book sales and signing at Touchstones Nelson this evening at 7:30 pm after Heather Mac Askill’s artist’s talk.
Books are $20/copy. Please bring cash.
We hope to see you there!!!
New Website Design by Pinkdog Designs
Pinkdog Designs was approached to help this local environmental organization rebrand, following a change of name. In partnership with Wildmice.ca we also completely renovated their web presence too. CKISS.ca is built as a fully customized wordpress site so that our clients have complete editing control of their own content 24/7. Of course this site is 100% responsive so it works on desktop, tablet and phone.
Check out CKISS.ca and sign up for their regular updates to stay informed. They are good people!
Other projects for CKISS:
event poster design
promotional poster design
logo design
special event menu design
special event promotional designs for web