Earlier this week I took a little field trip to the Mississippi State University campus. There are some beautiful and sweet-smelling Magnolia varieties in the center of campus that simply burst in Spring. Even though it’s only early February, we’ve had enough mild Mississippi weather that the varieties are already in full bloom. I thought I’d share a few of the images. We’re expecting a hard freeze this weekend, so these petals will distract me from the cold. Hope you enjoy!
I’ve been experimenting a little more lately with taking photographs, and I wanted to try out some photoshop “actions” I found from Paint The Moon. Last Friday I took a little field trip (as I sometimes do) to the Cotton District area of Starkville to get some detail shots. The actions just give the photos a slight shift in lighting that gave the rainy day shots a little more depth. I thought I’d share.
I recently had the privilege of completing a website design project for the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum. The Museum is located in Starkville in an old railway station and houses a collection of artifacts and memorabilia from the county, and it’s run entirely by volunteers. It was a pleasure working with their board to create a new digital presence to promote the Museum, so please take a moment to visit the site!
Back when I began the project, I took a field trip to the Museum to see the collection for myself with camera in hand. Naturally, my lens gravitated to letters and numbers, so I thought I would share a few.
I found this metal plate while walking around Downtown in Starkville, MS. I was intrigued by the company job description… “Frontbuilders.” Now, that’s a positioning statement! It turns out the Mesker Bros company produced cast iron building facade components that were shipped to small towns across America in the late 1800s and early 1900s via their mail order catalog. I can promise I’ll be on the lookout for more of these on my next letters-and-numbers hunt.
Last Friday I decided to take a little field trip away from my project schedule. From time to time, my camera and I go on a letters-and-numbers hunt. It’s a little habit I started back in college, and I simply enjoy documenting the written word or cypher (whether chiseled or brushed) wherever I find it.
For this hunt, I decided to visit the Reform Presbyterian Cemetery here in Starkville. This small plot of circa 1840 is wedged in between the bustle of University Drive and MS Hwy 182 — to be more precise, between the Halfway House bar and a Texaco station. It’s an odd little pocket of history in the middle of college town central. And, although the cemetery is in disrepair and many of the monuments are broken down and markings faded, I was curious to re-visit it.
Cemeteries always offer a wealth of letters and numbers — specifically, poignant but concise commentaries. Pair that possibility with fading marble, the crunch of last year’s autumn leaves, and a cool October afternoon, and you have the makings of a ripe field trip. While I try not to frequent cemeteries that often, the simple shapes of this aged one offered the week an opportunity for cool and quiet reflection. So, I thought I’d give you a first glimpse of the details I discovered.
Since I know I’ll share images of letters and numbers in future posts, I’ll simply add one to this opening collection. This mark is actually a joint where two pieces of now-broken marble were meant to connect. I couldn’t help but see the equal sign and recognize that in this place, although the engravings may differentiate between persons, a cemetery itself is the great equalizer.
Today I’m sharing a recent logo project I completed for the City of Starkville Department of Environmental Services. I’m posting it because it was a fun public project and because I think it’s a good design solution. But, I’m also sharing it because Starkville, MS is doing something special, and I always enjoy applying good design to good ideas.
The project began as a logo for the city’s Curbside Recycling program. Several years ago, Starkville began a free program of picking up recycling at the curbside with no sorting required by citizens. That’s a pretty common service, but in our area, the fact that it was free to citizens was pretty groundbreaking. We were one of the first communities in the state to offer it as a free service.
In our initial meetings on the project, however, the tone of the conversation began to expand beyond just recycling to the concept of environmental services as a whole. In addition to recycling, the department handles sanitation, as you might imagine, but also rubbish & debris, a landfill (like most communities), and city landscaping. The committee members shared their thoughts on the ways sanitation and recycling are tied together and their goals of creating a community where the days for recycling pick-up actually outnumber the days for garbage pick-up. We recognized together that the underlying goals were really bigger than just recycling. The work of the department is really about creating a positive environment in the community, and about doing that responsibly with greater citizen involvement and buy-in.
We changed the program of the project to create a logo and brand image for the Department of Environmental Services as a whole, so that all the elements of creating this “clean community” are represented by the same image. With the visuals, we wanted the logo to be about more than trash — just as the department is. And, we wanted the brand to reflect that Starkville is growing something positive with our environmental services — in both mindset and the physical environment.
Enjoy this first look at the solution the City of Starkville embraced!
My name is Haley Montgomery. After 16 years of ad agency wizardry, I hopped out on my own with Small Pond Graphics. I'm a creative for hire. Plop! is my pursuit of frogs with great prince potential... What's inspiring me. What's making me think better. What's turning my smile. What's keeping me afloat. It's all here.
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