Happy Thanksgiving

Twenty-two years ago we became first-time landlords when I moved from Illinois and turned my home into a rental property.  Three years later we bought our second rental property and realized that we were probably going to be doing this awhile so we created a business; Covered Bridge Apartments.

We needed a logo, but neither of us could draw.  We could set up record keeping and learn accounting.  We could establish workflow and create a corporate identity, but design a logo?  Time for some professional help.  Joerg asked his dad, a cartography professor by trade, if he could draw a pencil sketch of a covered bridge.  We used the Pulp Mill Bridge as a model.

As you drive to the community where our first Vermont rentals are located, you turn off just before crossing the Pulp Mill Bridge.  We see it every time we visit one of our units there.

Here is a picture of the bridge today.  It was rebuilt in 2012, long after we used it as a model for our logo.

And here is the bridge as it was in 2003 when we commissioned our company logo.  This is what Peter had to work with.

This is the sketch that resulted.  It became part of our letterhead, showed up on business cards, appears on our website, and even got turned into a favicon.

Now, twenty years later, and thanks to a very fun Christmas gift last year, our logo can be embroidered onto garments.  Covered Bridge Apartments can have corporate swag!  How fun is that!

So, on this Black Friday, day after Thanksgiving, I hope you are well (fed), relaxed, and able to find something to be thankful for.  Today, I am thankful for parents.  My parents, by birth and remarriage, and my parents-in-law.  We are blessed to have all of them still with us; sharing their wisdom, telling stories, and adding joy to our lives.  Each one of them has injected some of themselves into who we have become; how we live our lives, how we parent, how we run our business, how we interact with the world.

Happy Thanksgiving.