Donor Outreach Initiative
The JMT Wilderness Conservancy
Having relied primarily on state funding and large donations from private family foundations in their early years of operation, The JMT Wilderness Conservancy was looking for a way to improve outreach to their “grassroots” donors- the average person hiking the trail with an interest in helping to preserve the High Sierra.
I proposed an athletic hat that would be available to donors that a backpacker would want to wear while hiking on the John Muir Trail and that would be clearly recognizable. The result is a lightweight, colorful, and breathable hat that any hiker/backpack/trail runner will be stoked to wear in the Sierra sunshine.
Process:
My first course of action was addressing the Conservancy’s logo. Their standard logo features a cairn, or rock stack, which are not recommended along the JMT by the National Park System or Leave No Trace principles. I felt strongly that any apparel that was going to be worn on the trail with the Conservancy’s name on it could not feature this logo.
Instead, I made a simple badge-style logo featuring Keeler Needle and Mt. Whitney- the southern terminus of the JMT- a ridgeline that’s recognizable to all JMT hikers! I also used this logo to update the uniform apparel for the nonprofit’s interns who work in the backcountry each summer. The bounded rectangle is easier to position on the range of uniform pieces including sun hoodies, jackets, fleeces, and wide-brim hats.
Standard logo:
Apparel logo:
The company I chose to produce the hats is a fairly small brand, but one that is popular and well-known among trail runners- Territory Run Co. Their hats are perforated for breathability, feature a long brim for good sun protection, and the five-panel style fits most heads. As an ultralight backpacker myself, I know that the grams matter when picking gear for the trail, and I wanted to be sure it was a product that would appeal to both beginner hikers and those of us who weigh all of our gear on a kitchen scale before it goes in our pack!
I kept light colors on the top of the hat to avoid heat absorption, used the colors that I had implemented into the rest of the Conservancy’s branding to keep their image consistent, and created an accurate graphic showing the elevation profile of the John Muir Trail for the underside of the hat’s brim as a fun, interactive element for hikers to track their progress.
Mt. Whitney
Whitney Portal
Yosemite Valley
Handout:
Once the hat was in production, I realized this was also a great opportunity to create a small handout to accompany it with some “Backcountry Best Practices” and the Conservancy’s mission statement.
The resulting 4.25” x 5.5” double-sided card is easy to include when mailing the hats or to pass out at tabling events.
