In 2023, the TreePeople Educational Department tasked me to create a commemorative sweater design for their staff that was both contemporary, fun and would be appealing to the youth participating in TreePeople programs. I sourced leaves and branches from California native plants from the TreePeople headquarters.

TREEPEOPLE

TreePeople is Southern California’s largest environmental movement whose mission is to inspire, engage and support people to take personal responsibility for the urban environment, making it safe, healthy, fun and sustainable and to share our process as a model for the world. The unique use of the word fun in TreePeople’s mission statement is directly visible in these designs created for the environmental education department.

Patches were designed for the 2024 Youth Forestry and Environmental Education teams respectively. I was tasked with creating 2 patches that drew inspiration from retro girl scout merit badges. Apples were used in the imagery as an easily recognizable symbol for the educational field. In the Environmental Education badge, I decided to illustrate a tree with hanging apples in the style of some novelty patches from the 1970’s. This red apple motif remained consistent in the Youth Forester badge, using the adage, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” as a double meaning for the youth of today picking up the mantle of reforestation.