Pompey\’s Pillar – Glen Helen – Diehl Photography

A few weeks ago Nick Gaskins, the owner of Bing Design, was discussing a project of a friend who is a teacher at Mills Lawn elementary in Yellow Springs, OH. The project was a book assignment by teachers Ms. Shelton and Mrs. Barclay for their students using an online tool called Bookemon.com which provides users of any age a way to design and create books which can also be professionally printed for a fee.

This group of students is working to increase public knowledge about the Glen Helen Nature Preserve on the north side of Yellow Springs, OH. In fact, it is the yellow springs that provide the initial water flow that both is a feature of the Glen, but is also responsible for helping to carve this geological feature. If you have never been to Glen Helen, we highly recommended you check it out! For its close proximity to the village and bike path, you’ll find a gorge with a large creek, rock formations, even a standing rock pillar like those of area like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon. There are several hiking trails, a rock stairway near the nature center just off Corry Street with some 130 steps hewn by hand many years ago. From the Glen Helen About Us page… the Glen encompasses some 1,000 acres, has 25 miles of footpaths, features the yellow springs of Yellow Springs, some 400 year-old trees, and limestone cliffs.

This past Thursday, February 21, Mr. Starnes (aka Roger, web/print designer at Bing Design), stopped by for his first visit to Mills Lawn elementary. He met teachers Ms. Shelton and Mrs. Barclay as lunch was wrapping up and was greeted by a couple curious students in the lunch room. As lunch ended, a few classes met in the room of Ms. Shelton to meet Mr. Starnes. We discussed design, typical timeframes for making printed collateral (and what ‘collateral’ is) and talked about how things go from ‘just an idea’ to a ‘printed piece’. There were some 30+ kids during the meet-and-greet with a few questions of their own. :^)

Sign in front of Mills Lawn elementary

Following the group meeting, students broke into teams to start collaborating on their book. Some teams are creating content, others are designing the cover of the book, still others are doing research. Mr. Starnes met with the cover team to help them sketch out cover concepts for the book on Glen Helen.

After a quick online review of how Bookemon.com works, Mr. Starnes did some paper sketches showing the cover team how covers can be primarily image-based with small text for the book, or could be mostly book title text and smaller images. We also discussed the types of images the students felt most embodied the Glen as they wanted to portray it (trees, creek, animals, rocks, fish…). Each student was given a sheet of paper, and asked to do four ideas to discuss with one another after our hour in class.

Over the next few weeks, Bing will continue to work with the students and teachers to create their public awareness book on Glen Helen, and may even be printing copies. Stay tuned!

Below are some of the cool sites one can find by visiting Glen Helen. Click to visit the Glen Helen website or download a trail map…