ecohome guy

I've been geeked-out on the BeltLine since I first heard of it back in 1999. A couple of years later, I moved to Hampton, Georgia as a freshly-licensed real estate agent. My brother was developing some lofts in the downtown area of this small south Atlanta town in close proximity to what was to be a commuter rail stop on the coming Atlanta-to-Macon line. We viewed the commuter rail line as the BeltLine Unbuckled, a linear expression of, and connection to, the intown loop and ultimately a seamless 125 mile alternative transportation venue. The plan was to help develop the area within the pedestrian shed of the Hampton train stop following best practices in new urbanism and transit-oriented development. Alas, it is late 2010 and the commuter train has yet to leave the station. Meantime the BeltLine continues to gain momentum. So last year the family and I moved to historic Old Fourth Ward to embed ourselves in the BeltLine community at it's earliest stages. 

My first attempt at a blog, ATL Trail + Rail, was inspired by the quantum leap in quality of life that Atlanta's "Emerald Necklace" promised. I also started authoring a community portal @ OurHampton.com. This inspired me to start thinking about something similar for the BeltLine when the time was right. It was 2003,  so I was surprised to find the URL beltline.net was still available. So I acquired it. And waited. 

Now we are planning to launch BELTLINE.net soon. Here's how the concept has evolved in this era of social media:

We like to think of the BeltLine as Atlanta 2.0. This upgrade transforms our city into a world-class trail and transit metropolis with scores of Atlantans living, working, praying, playing, and shopping in a 22+ mile loop of connected communities. One of the things we think resonates so powerfully with people is the notion that the BeltLine is essentially social networking in the third dimension. Social networking often gives the illusion of connection, while remaining confined to cyberspace. But imagine an online counterpart to the BeltLine that facilitates and strengthens connections being made in the real world. Call it social networking 3.0. Now add hyper-local blog content featuring news, personalities, business, real estate, restaurants, photos, jobs, coupons and just about everything else associated with the community the BeltLine is becoming. That’s BELTLINE.net. Be sure to visit often, support a localized economy, and stay in the loop™!

Of course, we need a logo to go with a social media portal so gravid with promise, right? This is what we came up with:

 Here's a little glimpse into the thought process that lead to the design:

• Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery said "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." That's especially true when designing a logo. What's the simplist way to convey the idea?
• The logo composition is based on The Golden Mean. No arbitrary placement of Mr. Orange Head, no sir. That avatar is strategically placed in accordance with the principles of the sacred geometry of the Golden Spiral.
• The speech bubble, or call out, and avatar are iconic elements of the social media lexicon.
• The call out also emulates a loop of greenway.
• We gave a nod to The High Line, BeltLine's older NYC cousin, with part of the font selection.
• While we're obviously fond of the marriage of green and orange at ecohomeguy.com, we found affirmation for BELTLINE.net colors in the fascia of a building on the BeltLine close to the Someset stage area, with it's wabi sabi surface of rusted green paint.
• Joe Taylor of himynameisJoe.com did the design work.

 What say you? Did we nail it?