It was a virtual high-five from Oregon to Colorado.
Kevin McLain, who is in his third semester as a Warner College of Natural Resources graduate student at Colorado State University, reached out to Cameron Nelson, a graphic designer and part of the University’s external relations team, to see if he might reproduce one of Nelson’s designs.
The design in question: a stylized illustration of a hand that Warner students and friends affectionately refer to as “the Warner hand” and that is part of a suite of icons and illustrations Nelson created to help bring Warner’s brand to life.
“I have a bachelor’s in fine art and, as an artist myself, I took an instant liking to the hand when I saw it on some swag that was mailed to me after enrolling,” McLain said. “The first time I saw it, I thought, ‘That would be a sweet tattoo!’”
It was important to McLain to get a green light from Nelson before he followed through with his permanent plan. Nelson said OK.
Flash forward about one year to when Nelson received an email from McLain that included photos of a freshly inked Warner hand tattoo on McLain’s right tricep.
“I was just trying to make something interesting that represented Warner College as I understood it from a visual perspective. Also, the iconography was meant to somewhat reference concentration areas, but allow for interpretation too,” said Nelson. “It’s cool to see when your work is embraced by others and lives outside its original context.”
The forever green factor
The photos and circumstances behind McLain’s tattoo made rounds through University channels, and it became easy to see just how much relationships matter.
The tattoo story made it to Linda Nagel, department head for the Forest and Rangeland Stewardship department which houses the online program McLain is enrolled in. She immediately shared it with the adviser for the program, Sonya LeFebre, who is the primary contact into CSU for McLain and makes sure Oregon doesn’t feel far away.
“I like to imagine the coffee cups, bandanas, hats, and t-shirts sporting the Warner logo being used around the country, but this certainly takes it to the next step,” LeFebre said.
She shared the story with liaison librarian Jocelyn Boice who provides library training for online students and helps connect them to the CSU campus and the brand. It was soon discovered that Hannah Brown, who was the instructor for the online version of the Master of Natural Resources Stewardship seminar at that time, was the one who sent McLain the Warner hand prize that started his tattoo journey. Emails continued to fly around campus about how remarkable it was that a student wanted a Warner hand tattoo – forever.
Commitment to protect the Earth
“The best brands have the unique ability to make an indelible mark on our lives,” said Elias Martinez, Assistant Vice President for Brand Strategy at CSU. “We all think it’s pretty awesome that Kevin has embraced this notion in the most literal way possible.”
McLain is pursuing a career as a park ranger and has worked three seasonal positions with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. He just accepted a position with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department as a Park Ranger 1 with Milo McIver State Park. His main reason for enrolling at CSU, he says, was to further that career path.
“Besides representing the college that I have invested all my time and energy into, the hand resonated with me on several other layers as well,” McLain said. “The image, to me, represents a commitment to my chosen career path. It represents my investment into my future, as well as my commitment to protect the wild places of the Earth and our natural resources. I like that the symbolism in the lines can mean so many things, but as a whole, to me it represents the green, wild, beauty of the world.”
