The Heart in Colorado design is the shape of state of Colorado with a heart that represents the state flag and mountain markers representing the 14ner. This design might seem simple but it was a difficult design to come up with because Colorado State is a rectangular shape and is has an identically shaped state directly to the north, Wyoming.
The challenge was putting a heart into the state and have everyone knowing that it is Colorado and not Wyoming. To start, we looked at what Colorado is known for, which is their mountains. We also noticed that it has a great state flag. If you have never seen the flag, it is blue and white stripped, with a red "C" and a gold circle in the middle. The colors represent the blue ski, the white mountain top snow, gold for metal and a big "C" for Colorado. I think it's one of the best designed flags in the USA (we also enjoy Ohio's state flag and Portland's City flag).
We decide to merge the locations of the 54 "fourteeners", mountain peaks higher than 14,000 feet, and put most of the Colorado flag in the heart. This design produces a design that just cannot be confused with Wyoming and takes two of the most loved aspects of Colorado and merges them together for our Heart Sticker design. This is know our final design but the journey we took getting here was long and interesting.
Truth be known, we were actually beat to the punch on designing a Heart in Colorado. A past resident of Portland, Josh Mischke, moved to Colorado in 2008 and was so impressed with the Heart in Oregon sticker that he created a Heart in Colorado sticker. He took black outline of Colorado and placed an emerald green heart in middle of it. Our first initial reaction to this was panic but then we calmed after the realization of the design flaw; the rectangular shaped state. We knew what state it was because we were so familiar but we speculated other would not. Josh and the Heart Sticker Team became friends after several months of conversation and we purchased his Heart in Colorado stickers and website.
As we worked with our graphic artist on the Colorado Heart Sticker design, we revised the design about 8 times. The heart was easy, take the flag and place it in the middle of the heart. We ended up clipping off part of the "C" because of the dip in the heart. We knew that there was enough of the flag for the mind to make the leap and complete the design. The real challenge was the 14ners.
How many 14ners are in Colorado? The answer is 54. We were only able to place 52 into our design because two of the peaks are so close to each other that they fell directly on top of each other on the design, so you can only see 52. We don't know the names of all the peaks but most folks from Colorado can name them instantly. The next challenge we had with the mountains was placement. It took at least three revisions to just get the placement of the peaks in a good enough place to represent where they are actually located.
After much time and effort we completed our Heart in Colorado designs. This was one of the team's favorite designs because Coloradoans are so much in love with their home. We have also known many friends that have such a tight bond with the people and the place, so we wanted to do the design justice.
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