A Harrow Disc Prepares the Land for New Life

Like everything we’re creating for Southlands, our new logo evolved from “First Principles” thinking. “As a design philosophy, the main idea of First Principles is to seek solutions that stem from the project’s own parameters, rather than external inspiration,” explains Kiky Kambylis, Creative Director for Letterbox Design, the Vancouver-based studio that created the logo.

Here, First Principles means that everything we create is rooted in farming and food. From the restored dairy barn and the farmstead architecture throughout, to the pastoral views of fields and the market at the heart of the community, farming is foundational to Southlands’ character. What’s more, farming is our reason for being.

The logo represents a harrow disc blade, a farm tool used for tilling the soil to prepare its surface for planting. While crops and soil conditions vary from farm to farm, the harrow is a constant presence that remains a tangible symbol of agriculture. As a tool, it is well designed: simple, effective, and enduring.

We chose it to represent Southlands because of its authentic—essential—connection to farming. It is hard-working, as evidenced by the soil that clings to its shopworn edges. It has a history. And it is germane to our future: It prepares the land for new life. It stands for so much of what drives this project and what we have planned for the community.

As a logo, the disc makes literal reference to the farming activities that shaped this place almost 150 years ago, that take place on site to this day, and that will long continue to be a way of life here. Conceptually, the disc expresses the community we are growing from the ground up and the food-focussed culture that will nourish generations to come.