alternative energy

Wrapping Up a Stunning Autumn

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum, Hamilton, OH

This year we were blessed with the most stunning autumn. Warm weather, brilliant colors—October was just the best! And while I was swamped with work and sometimes bemoaned the month passing me by, I was thankful to get out several times to relish God’s beautiful creation.

Dried Milkweed, Cherokee Marsh, Madison, WI

I can always count on my son to find the good nature spots. This fall he and I hiked Korth’s Park in Lake Mills, WI, and Cherokee Marsh in Madison.

He says it’s proven no one looks at botanical photography. How can you not? Milkweeds are very cool. So are those box elder bugs, as long as they stay out of my house.

Dried milkweed, Cherokee Marsh, Madison, WI

Repitition is an art form, especially in nature. Check out the perfect alignment of this seedpod.

Sunrise at H.G. Wells State Park, Upper Peninsula Michigan

My husband and I took a circle tour of Lake Michigan, sort of, as we visited family in Michigan and Ohio. The first night we camped at J.W. Wells State Park in the Upper Peninsula. For rising early the next morning, we were rewarded with a peaceful sunrise all to ourselves.

Michigan's Mackinac Bridge

Crossing the Mighty Mack—there’s beauty in manmade repetition as well.

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum

In Ohio, we couldn’t have had a better day to visit the Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum. Located in Hamilton, just outside Cincinatti, this park is 265 acres of rolling hills accented by monumental sculptures.

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum

Sandstone Mummy Mask, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum

Inside, in the museum, ancient sculptures are a nice contrast to the modernistic outdoor works.

Here we have a Sandstone Mummy Mask, dating from 1074-702 B.C. Isn’t he cute? I thought his smiling face would make a nice computer screen saver to start the day with each morning.

God Serapis, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum

And here we have the Roman Marble Head of the God Serapis, circa Second Century, A.D. Very stately and serious.

House in Liberty, Indiana

Southern Ohio and Indiana have different home architectural styles than we have in Wisconsin. I find them so fascinating.

Houses of this almost-row style were all along the main streets of Liberty, IN, (not a good picture, but apparently we couldn’t stop the car and get out for a better shot…ahem) The houses all looked very deep in length, although they weren’t connected or as close together as they are in large cities.

Anyone know what this style is and anything of its history?

Power lines and windmills in central Illinois

And finally, as we headed northward on Indiana’s I-65, we drove past miles and miles of windmills. This shot says it all—transmission lines running parallel to windmills. And yes, there’s even beauty in this repetition, so says my husband, the electrical lineman.

Communication Isn’t Just for the Birds

Every year about this time we get birds lining up on the wires. In August, it’s barn swallows. In September, its mourning doves. They sit on the wires and chatter, chatter, chatter away. When my kids were young, I told them the birds were discussing their migratory route.

Communication isn’t just for the birds. When you’re working with a graphic designer, how the two of you communicate makes all the difference. Poor communication can bomb the project. Good communication makes it soar.

Lately, I’ve been working with NewWay Global Energy and the folks there have done a super job communicating.

Right from the get-go, NewWay’s Carrie, Cory, Dave and Mona knew their product, their audience and their marketing objectives. Together we brainstormed the logo and website they wanted me to create, and they showed me samples they liked and didn’t like.

Here are some of the things we discussed:

  • Because NewWay is a subsidiary of JWR, Inc., logos for both companies need to share a commonality. We did this by taking JWR’s swoosh, reversing it and putting it in front of NewWay’s name.
  • NewWay’s product is a cutting edge waste-to-energy system. Their logo and website need a confident, clean, natural, and earth-friendly look. We chose a bold typeface for the NewWay name; a contrasting, very round type for Global Energy; and a clean, san-serif type for the website content.
  • Carrie, Cory, Dave and Mona wanted the logo done in green and blue. But not just any green and blue. They had specifics for me, which was so helpful because, after all, my idea of green could easily be different from theirs. We could have wasted a lot of time going back and forth before hitting it right.

So what colors did they like?

Mountain Dew green and Chex Mix blue. Way to go, Carrie, Cory, Dave and Mona!

NewWay Global Energy, Johnson Creek, WI

Energy in a New Way

NewWay Global Energy, Johnson Creek, WI

Here’s a project I was real excited to take on—a new company making a new kind of energy!

NewWay Global Energy is a subsidiary of JWR, Inc., a leading waste and recycling management company. I’ve done web design work for JWR in the past and when they asked me to help brand their new company, I was totally honored. Honored for two reasons: I love being part of new ventures and I really love people putting their brains together for alternative earth-saving ideas. NewWay Global Energy is doing just that.

But first, since I’m not at all scientific, I had some major research to do!

NewWay is a front-running company working to develop the first pyrolysis-based waste-to-energy recycling plant in the U.S. In this case, pyrolysis is the decomposition of non-recyclable materials by use of high, oxygen-free temperatures. NewWay’s system not only addresses the problem of overflowing landfills, it also creates an energy alternative to the fossil fuels we’re so quickly depleting.

This is awesome!

So check out NewWay’s home page. And mark this innovative new company as one to follow—we’ll be adding pages in the weeks ahead!

 

Need a website for your new company? Give me a holler!