Iowa transplant creates logo for adopted hometown

NORTH ENGLISH — Joseph Thorin moved his family to North English only five years ago. “It’s a great little place to live,” he said.

“It’s idyllic in certain ways, and we like that about it.”

Thorin’s impressions of this great little place -- and his artwork -- are embodied in the City’s new official logo.

Laura Sauser of Iowa County Community Development began talking to North English business owners in March about revitalizing the downtown. The Main Street Revitalization Committee has been meeting monthly since then to discuss projects and needs of the community, Sauser said.

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“One need we determined was that the City needed a logo and a website. We were able to find an Iowa County developer to create the website but still struggled to find the right logo,” said Sauser.

“Joseph ‘just happened’ to be at our meeting and pretty much volunteered to create one.”

Thorin, 35, grew up in South Dakota near the Iowa and Minnesota boarders, close to his Scandanavian relatives. His wife, Abby, is from Iowa City. The couple has four children from ages 12 to age 6.

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Thorin was working at the Kalona Creamery and wanted to live somewhere close, but somewhere with affordable housing. He was making only $15 an hour at the time, and he and his wife wanted Abby to be a stay-at-home mom.

“North English was a town that could make that actually viable to us,” Thorin said.

Thorin is now an IT auditor working with national and international clients remotely through a corporation in Georgia. He works from home, and his children are schooled at home.

“We’re a small community, and I didn’t even know they were having these downtown revitalization meetings,” Thorin said. “So it was really kind of almost random that the connection occurred.”

One Saturday at the North English Farmer’s Market (“We live just up the ally from those,” Thorin said), someone mentioned downtown revitalization and decided that, as a young father, Thorin would have a unique perspective about how to improve the town.

Thorin gave up his contact information and received an email inviting him to the next downtown revitalization meeting where he explained what he thought the town needed.

Creation of a logo for the city was one of the agenda items for the meeting.

“There was already some work that had been done,” said Thorin. “I was not inclined to butt in to that process,” he said, but he saw an opportunity to use some of his skills.

Following the meeting, Thorin asked Sauser if the group was still accepting ideas for the logo.

“I very quickly started working on something,” Thorin said. “If I were going to get something in, it would have to be quick.”

Though not a designer by trade, Thorin is no stranger to the craft. “I would describe myself as a hobbyist…in graphic design,” he said.

“I do have a background in photography and in computers,” said Thorin. “I have a little channel where I do photo restoration and colorization and that kind of stuff,” he said.

The Instagram account is called the_timetravellers_camera.

Thorin’s logo designs have been limited to people he knows, he said, but he has a sufficient grasp of what works in design and what doesn’t.

Thorin interviewed some people in town, asking them what North English is to them. What would they like a logo to convey?

A logo must be representative and easy to understand, Thorin said. The one he created, features a tree with its large branches bending to embrace the North English watertower and a farm field, its roots cradling them from beneath.

“It’s about the beauty of the country surrounding it. It’s about growth. It’s about setting down roots.”

Water towers are often the first things travelers see when they near a town, Thorin said. They are symbols of permanence.

Thorin prepared a packet and gave a presentation to the city council explaining his design. For the council, one thing was missing: the star that hangs over Main Street at Christmas time.

No one that Thorin talked to while during research had seen the star as representative of North English, he said. But the council asked if Thorin could put a star in the logo, so he added one between the words North and English.

The logo, with a slight color change in the outer ring, is displayed on banners along Main Street. City Hall has two large prints of it, the Public Works Department displays a minimal version of the logo (Thorin created several versions for different applications) and the City’s new website features it.

“There are plans to have it on all City water bills and communications as well,” said Sauser.

“He created a beautiful logo that represents North English well.”