Our Logo: The Mighty Tetons

Posted: May 24, 2017 | MountainBased Team

When we set out to design the logo for MountainBased we wanted to incorporate the history of our founding into something fresh that we could call our own. A lot of time spent in coffee shops spurred hundreds of design variations, but kept leading us back to the original Iowa Mountaineers logo of the Mighty Tetons.

The Backstory

The Iowa Mountaineers logo was created in 1940 and resembles the Teton Mountain Range outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming (Pictured above). It was worn by some of the great mountaineers of its day including Paul Petzoldt, Hans Gmoser, Harvey Carter, and Fred Beckey. It was represented in 17 alpine mountain ranges and worn to the summit of 1,300 mountains worldwide. The Tetons were a vital inspiration to Iowa Mountaineer founder—and our grandfather—S. John Ebert. While heading home from a trip to the Tetons in 1945 he wrote:

It had been fun and mentally relaxing to spend three weeks in nature away from the tumult and horror of war. Already we were aware of the screeching war headlines in newspapers and on the radio as we stopped in gas stations and in restaurants. War seemed so useless after spending time in the stronghold of the mountains which only emphasized endless space, time and strength

This logo became more than a design, but a symbol of a right of passage for those from the state of Iowa as they explored mountain ranges throughout the world. The Iowa Mountaineers logo represented the largest university sponsored climbing organization in the world through it’s partnership with the University of Iowa from 1940 to 1996.

Mixing the new with the old

The MountainBased logo incorporates the same mountain range as the original 1940 logo which was based around the Cathedral Group in the Grand Tetons. We partnered with bouldering enthusiast and professional graphic artist Asher Koch to help bring our vision to life. To see the Grand Tetons like you’ve never seen them before watch this video by MoreThanJustParks.

GRAND TETON 8K from More Than Just Parks on Vimeo.

What our logo symbolizes

To us, our logo is more than just an image. Our logo symbolizes the adventurous spirit that we inherited and how we’ll continue to pass on for generations to come. Not to mention, we think it looks pretty cool on a hat.