During the beginning part of the ideation phase, I made the mistake of trying to immediately start sketching in fear that I would get behind. I had done barely a page of sketches (roughly 30) and was already struggling to come up with more ideas, which did not bode well for my future. I had planned on having 100 sketches and here I was struggling at 30. After a much-needed talk with my instructor and other students, I went back to do more research to give myself a better foundation.

This research process consisted of me going back and creating an informal competitive analysis that compared outdoor schools in the lower mainland. For each school, I defined their tone of voice and documented their visual language (brand colours, visual elements, typography, and photography style), which helped me recognize what niches were already occupied.

I also went back to my word map, which I had created to act as a bank of visual imagery that I could use. My first pass was too thin, I had focused only on the idea of schooling and organic elements. I went back and added more categories like BC scenery, and ecological concepts which might be of use. Additionally, I also added the three brand adjectives that defined the brand (real, relevant, and revolutionary) and wrote related words as well as possible methods of visually communicating those ideas.

With this, I edited and presented to my mentors. We agreed on three potential concepts to keep refining, which were a boot print, a pine cone/Pinecone scale/badge, and lastly a three v shape. After another round of ideation, we decided that the boot print was working the best. The three v’s ended up being very anticlimactic when placed together.

The pinecone scales had become too abstract and no longer read, which is an important note moving forward that also applied to the boat concept. Some key problems we outlined were that the boot needed to be clearer as a boot, should be a little more realistic, and we considered applying texture as well.

For now, I would give myself a 7.5 or 8 out of ten: I have a sold start but I still have a ways to go.