Who We Are and What We Are Creating

No, we are not the makers of the world’s first camel car. That’s a sketch from a brand brainstorming session when Gil suggested “Glass Camel”. Camels store water in their humps and are used for transportation. It was a solid connection to the box truck we will modify to house a filtration system designed by students at the University of Florida.

We’re in week 6 in the semester session of this project and we’re forming the visual identity of the project. My team, which is full of graphic design and environmental design majors, are also tasked in developing this blog. We’re building our online footprint by posting articles about water insecurity and design solutions to this issue. Also, I hope we display our personalities and methods as designers.

I hope visitors see that we are smart, collaborative, analytical, creative, and fun.

So how do we express those qualities in a blog? How do other people do it?

The Look of Other Water Conservation Blogs 

From left to right, top to bottom: National Aquarium, Water Use it Wisely, Water World, Portland Water Bureau, California Water Blog, and Blue Water Baltimore

This is how other organizations have designed their blogs. 

Less Grey, A Little Blue, and More Brown

Let’s reference, but stand out from the blueness of water conversation groups. Essentially, let’s look at rich brown earth tones to turn people towards the actuality of nature.

Below is a simple way to play with that. I changed the background color to a light brown (#a18757) to add warmth. Also I experimented by changing the body text to Puritan and the title header to Crimson Text.  I like Puritan's smaller, more refined style and I wanted to include a serif font to add a touch of variety. Also I manipulated the header image to just focus on our logo because I want to direct visitors to the blog pages to find out more about us. 

The Original Content We Provide

I like the variety of length between Angela’s reflection on a source to David’s and Katie’s shout outs to interesting finds. They meet the needs of different audiences because some will want instant tweet-like posts and others will want more analysis on the research.  Yet I think we can generate other original content.

We could provide useful tips for other student designers who trying to raise funds. For instance we could write : 10 Things Not to Do in Your Crowd Funding Video. We’ve looked at various Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects so we know what works and what doesn’t. To learn how to quickly generate content I suggest everyone check out Ask A PR Girl’s How to Write 100 Posts This Weekend. My list suggestion is just one way we can learn how to write more for the blog.

So guys, let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments below. What are your keywords  for the blog’s image? It’s ok if one of them is moist.

-Ashley Renee Ferebee