Plant the seed.

Heartwood is a nonprofit designed to support educational systems in developing countries. With its flagship project in Africa and plans to expand to South America in the future, the “think and do tank” provides educational policy research for government officials, then cultivates insights of its research into additional projects that serve the public and its educators directly. The team behind Heartwood helped launch Rwanda’s first public library as well as its first national council of librarians.

Heartwood is a brand new organization. As such, it’s branding and logo will be its first introduction to potential donors, volunteers, and staff. Our challenge? To create a great first impression. Not only did we need to create a logo that reflects the organization as a whole, but we also needed to ensure it would resonate with a global audience.

Heartwood’s name comes from the heartwood of a tree, which is the dense center around its sapwood. For building and construction purposes, heartwood is the heartiest portion of the tree, since it supports the tree’s weight. Using this as inspiration, we created a logo that alludes to the story of the organization.

If you want to watch a child’s mind grow - plant the seed. A nation’s institution of education should be its heartwood, around which the youth/emerging generations rise and grow. It provides the knowledge by which the rest of the country builds and upholds itself.