The Lakeside Life Logo and Colors

Choosing our logo was interesting.  We put some serious thought and ideas into the mix and it finally shook out to be what it is now, a simple teal upside down triangle with various complementary colors.

The TRIANGLE... how did it become a symbol for us?  Importantly for the founding family, and foremost, there is an obvious Christian connection to the Trinity.  Also, historically, an upside down triangle was used to symbolize water which seemed to fit well for a logo about a LAKE.  In mathematics and engineering, a triangle is known to be exceptionally strong, and psychologically it can represent wisdom and stability.  A triangle has 3 sides and the number 3 happens to play a huge part in the personal lives of our founders, the lake in general, and it is a collective favorite number of the team. Smith Lake has 3 main channels - Ryan Creek, Rock Creek and Sipsey Fork, and the lake lies in 3 counties we cherish:  Cullman, Walker and Winston.  ​

Google Map drawing by The Lakeside Life Team

If you consider connecting lines from key anchor points at pivotal ends of the lake like Cullman, Double Springs, and past the dam to Sipsey (i.e. "Sipsey Fork"), you will have an upside down triangle.  Even drawing lines from each anchor city from Cullman, Double Springs, to Jasper, and back to Cullman, you'll still have a triangle formation. There are TONS of other fun reasons we chose the triangle shape for our lake's logo, so check back soon for more, and we'll add info along and along (i.e. have you ever noticed all the triangles in the design of our favorite #spotsonsmith Duncan Bridge?  Just look around everywhere at the lake, you'll find a triangle is a great symbol in many ways).  One thing about our logo that we cherish most - it is completely unique and authentic ! 

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What about our company COLORS?  Our main company colors are teal green, creamy white, charcoal, black and navy blue.  Obviously Smith Lake is known for its gorgeous clear greenish waters.  Based on an individual's perception, the waters are sometimes said to appear to be hues of emerald, jade, greenish turquoise, teal, aqua and other colors.  In different seasons, under different lighting, in various weather, or at all times of the day, the color of the water changes often in a 24 hour period.  It can appear not only greenish, but blueish, or even greyish in photographs, but it is definitely a shade of green a majority of the time, especially on bright clear summer days.  Our teal is a nice combination of all the colors seen in the lake.  

Teal mosaic, Pinterest

Pantone color strip

"A definition of Teal:  Teal is a blue-green colour. It can be created by mixing blue into a green base, or deepened as needed with black or gray." We often use several different Pantone colors from palettes of teal and aqua in production of our logo and products.  Teal is said to symbolize "morality and renewal" and evoke feelings of "tranquility, optimism, restfulness, reflection and understated elegance."  Pretty cool!  The colors of navy blue, charcoal and black (sometimes we use brownish, khaki & taupe hues) were chosen as natural toned colors (found in the rocky shorelines around the lake) to simply provide a nice contrast and complement to the base colors of creamy white (like fluffy clouds on a summer day) and shades of teal (as in the crisp clean cool greenish waters of Smith).  ​

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Tiffany Blue Box sample

To combine the TRIANGLE and COLORS, and settle on approving a final design, we borrowed ideas from the past, and particularly special to our founder, Syndi, who was the first to suggest and insist on a triangle shape.  She lived and worked in New York City in her twenties, and she fell in love with many buildings seen beyond her West Greenwich Village neighborhood near NYU that were adorned architecturally in an Art Deco style featuring bold straight lines and triangular and geometric shapes, flourishes and points.  The Chrysler Building was a strong distant focal point from her 7th floor apartment window, and as you know, the building features triangular shapes at the crown.  Syndi also had a favorite place to visit and shop in Manhattan... Tiffany & Co.!  Her favorite gifts since have always come wrapped in a tiffany blue box with a signature white ribbon.  So... to combine concepts for the logo, she wanted a font that was classic, a green color that was as close to a shade of tiffany blue as possible (but in a greenish tone), plus a tone of white, and she hoped for a subtle nod to the lovely angles often found in Art Deco styling.  If you arrange triangles together in a line, they resemble geometric abstract waves.  So after several renditions and ideas, the green triangle logo we have now was finally born. 

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The Chrysler Building, New York City, britannica.com

We hope you like our logo and colors as much as we do.  We have noticed lots of companies around the lake adopting these colors to use in lake merchandise and we LOVE it!  We are HERE FOR IT!  Enjoy using these colors that have now become a symbol of our lake, and often adopted as Smith Lake's official colors.  ​​​