Goal

Design a logo concept for a working farm and ranch that's home to people with and without intellectual disabilities, illustrating the profound place this community holds in the hearts of the thousands who support it.

Solution

Quality services and support for people with intellectual disabilities are more difficult to find in adulthood. While public schools and other organizations provide invaluable assistance in childhood, those kinds of comprehensive programs are often not available for adults with disabilities, and many older parents need help creating fulfilling lives for their adult children.

More than 20 years ago, the parents of a happy, healthy baby girl with Down Syndrome looked down the road and saw too few opportunities for their daughter. When she was still a small child, they decided to build a working farm and ranch – a rich, fulfilling community – for people with and without intellectual disabilities, and the people who chose to work and live alongside them. Today, there are more than 60 Ranchers and staff living in this community. They raise chickens, pigs and cattle; grow food for their tables and for sale; and produce more than 15,000 poinsettias, lilies and spring baskets prized by customers across Central Texas.

More than 20 buildings make up the village, and each front door contains a stained glass inset featuring a Texas star. The star window is a recognizable symbol for anyone who has visited the Ranch, but it also serves as a metaphor. This is a community of perseverance and faith and, for the families of the Ranchers, a reminder that every time one door closes, somewhere a window opens. The window forms the foundation of the logo. When placed on top of images of the Ranch, the partially transparent beveled glass panels create the feeling of a window on the Ranch.

Modern, serif type places the Ranch in the present while alluding to the aesthetics of rural Texas. The name of the Ranch – an allusion to both Down syndrome and the residential mission of the organization – is placed within lines that provide a strong visual foundation for the window itself.

The color palette was pulled from life on the Ranch: worn denim, scrub brush and pine, horse hide and rusty fencing.