what we do
We bring a human-centered, design-thinking approach—typically benefitting big tech and corporations—to small but mighty nature and public lands organizations. We build on your teams expertise and experience to ideate, collaborate, and connect people to land in new ways.
What we offer
Insights & Opportunities
We use a design research approach to engage with those you strive to better understand or connect with (e.g., partners, donors, staff, visitors, members) through interviews, workshops, surveys and field research. We present our findings and insights along with ideas and opportunities to brainstorm with your team: new programs and experiences, ways to engage current and new audiences, develop goals and priorities, or generate ideas for retail and e-commerce.
Web & UX Design
We create and enhance your digital footprint and voice, whether that involves building a new website from scratch or refreshing and improving your current one. Starting with an existing design and user experience (UX) audit of your website, we can help pinpoint needs and priorities — as well as conduct a competitive analysis to look for opportunities to stand out.
Visual Design
We work with team to reinvent or refresh your brand and visual assets to ensure they feel authentic to your organization, community and the land that we share. We can work with your team to create any visual designs, physical or digital, which may include: marketing, communications, fundraising, events, way-finding, environmental designs and/or interpretive educational designs.
Workshops & Facilitation
We facilitate interactive workshops tailored to your needs and goals—whether that’s working on a new initiative or idea, evaluating a current state and visioning a future state, or getting to know your community, audiences, donors or members. We can also design retreats and/or team-building activities that: provide an opportunity to connect, find alignment, get to know each other, brainstorm new ideas, build trust, and so on!
Inclusive Design
The outdoors are for all and it’s important for people of all forms of differences to not only feel welcome, safe and able to enjoy these places but to feel engaged and empowered to play a role in preserving them, too. We train your staff on the principles of inclusive design along with best practices so that you can create inclusive spaces, experiences, programs and opportunities.
…. and more!
Whether you’re looking to optimize your team by exploring new ways of working, collaborating, or identifying the right tools to do your best work—we can help you do the great work you’re already doing more efficiently and effectively so you can maximize your teams impact by focusing on the important stuff.
All hands in
All hands in
Whether you’d like to get to know one another or you have a specific project in mind, we would love to talk! Just reach out.
What we bring
We get you. We understand both the magic and the realities of operating organizations like yours in often beautiful but complex places.
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We bring design-thinking methodology and user research typically reserved for corporations and tech to smaller organizations.
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We know how to get your team thinking outside of the box and using your expertise to identify and prioritize short, long and blue sky vision and goals—whether it be for ways to engage stakeholders, build partnerships, or bringing new ideas to life.
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We bring fresh ideas and innovative approaches to your organization's ways of working, ways of collaborating internally and externally, communication and outreach efforts, attract new audiences and build awareness of the awesome work you’re doing.
We can offer an objective perspective and offer ideas outside of existing set ways of doing things.
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We’re not the experts in what you do, you are! We want to understand your mission, vision and goals – then tap into your teams expertise to help you get there.
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Working with us allows you to free up internal resources to focus on other critical tasks or aspects of their roles – and our insights help you get to new insights and ideas more efficiently.
Because we are a small team that can staff a project based on your needs, we are more affordable than other agencies and consultancies or hiring a full-time employee.
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We have decades in design research, strategy and facilitation working across industries.
We know organizations like yours because we have experience partnering and collaborating with nature nonprofits and land conservancies, as well as managing creative projects in support of them.
We understand the complexities of compromises made to be paid in sunrises and sunsets, and to realize your efforts in connecting people to and protecting these incredible places.
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We are always looking for solutions and ideas that account and design for all forms of human difference—and it begins with understanding the unique challenges and barriers that different groups face. We’re always looking for those who experience barriers and challenges to have a seat at the table.
Imagine the possibilities
Eager to partner but don’t know what to start? Don’t worry, we day dream about this all day, every day. It typically starts with a conversation around your current goals and challenges as an organization, and from there prioritize needs and opportunities.
Here are some ideas to get us started…
Engaging Programming
What do your audiences want? What do those who you haven’t engaged yet need? How can you be more relevant for the folks in communities around you? We’ll gather input from real people to help develop new engaging community-driven programming (and strategic priorities), and use these insights to not only build out these programs but create a continuous feedback loop and iterate programs to meet the needs of those you seek to engage.
Inclusive & Accessible Experiences
So, you want to be more inclusive or accessible. What does that mean to your organization? What are the current barriers or challenges visitors have accessing outdoor spaces? What are ways that people of all differences enjoy spending time outdoors, engage with organizations and programming like yours? We’ll walk your team through a Inclusive Design 101 workshop and do research to gather insights that inform ideas and priorities to make your organization and lands more accessible, diverse and inclusive.
Leave No Trace
Do visitors even know what this is? Why do they follow or not follow LNT? Knowing it’s hard to change behavior, what are interventions that we can design that nudge people in the right direction? Let’s first understand the behaviors, attitudes and motivations of visitors then evaluate the effectiveness of current interventions. We’ll build on these insights to inform future approaches to better educating and practicing Leave No Trace principles.
Selfie Safety
Many injuries in the outdoors happen when people let their guard down and literally lose sight of their footing. Why do people continue to make the same mistakes despite the glaringly obvious risk? Let’s explore what leads to these accidents with SME’s (e.g. park rangers, rescue teams, guides) and together brainstorm ways to reduce the number of accidents and rescues out on the trail. Let’s prototype, test and iterate design interventions that put safety first.
Trash and Recycling
What are the current challenges and where are you seeing them most? If the bins are there, why does this problem still exist? Are there interventions or opportunities to limit the amount of trash and waste in the first place, or reward those who help to clean up after others? Let’s gain a deeper understanding of the human behavior that is leading to this problem to inform how we tackle it going forward.