The first phase of this mentorship project is the listen/gather/define stage. This includes completing the final brief and sharing research. I was able to meet with my mentor at his office and conduct further work via email and video conference. It was nice to be able to visit another office to get a sense of professionalism and the environment!

In the initial meeting, we were able to decide on the topic of the project. We were interested in a geology-related project versus updating a local restaurant. As my mentor has had some experience with using geology as a reference, I got a better understanding of how they integrated geology using an abstract approach. It’s a good tip because, for myself, I could be tempted to keep things more technically exact because it’s my background!

Geology-inspired brand by Glasfurd & Walker
Mindmap of geology visuals to help collect images for background moodboards

After a quick look at what could be options, the top 2 choices were a glamping hotel and a clay soap company. I decided on the hotel, as I wanted a more complete branding project. To get started, I learned about their preferred research methods, which is not unlike what we do already – background research, competitor analysis, brand essence, moodboards, and sketching. This work helped me narrow down:

  • The name: Terrane
  • The location: Sea to Sky Highway (around Squamish)
  • Ideas for specialized collateral (eg. matches versus stationary)
  • Opportunity Gaps from the competitor analysis
  • Brand Essence
  • Visual Asset Ideas
Competitor page to help identify pros, cons and gap opportunities for the hotel

At this stage, the most challenging part was deciding the project! Another challenge would be how I would be able to use geology in design and see it in a new light! I had tackled this in a previous workshop but did a geology conference, so this would be design inspired by the topic versus being the topic. So far though, I think it served well as I think I was able to skim through any dense research materials (eg. Roadside Geology Book) to pull out what would be useful.

I grade myself a 9/10 as I got feedback from my mentor that the brief was thorough, succinct, and clear, Also that the research, moodboards, and competitor analysis was also thorough. For the next phase, I hope this means I have lots to work with!