Grassburs. sandburs, goatheads, stickers – whatever you call them, we all know them, and we all hate them …but do we actually love them? We love the places they are found and the resilience for which they stand. Once the pain is gone, we love the memories of the places we were and the people we were with when we got into a mess of them.

Somewhere deep down inside us, something is stirred when we come across grassburs. They are tangible evidence that, either we are outside, or we have been outside. Our inner spirit is then ignited and intrigued because, in this modern world of asphalt and attitudes, we long for something real. We remember the freedom of our youth when we would charge headlong into the woods with reckless abandon. We desire to shuck the consuming ways of this world and get back in touch with nature. We yearn to leave the safety of the every-day to go adventuring. Just as beautiful roses have thorns, the best adventures have grassburs.

This, I know from experience…

One mild, January afternoon I took my girls for a dental check-up and afterward decided to drive north instead of driving home. The sunny day and the cleared afternoon calendar gave a perfect opportunity for adventuring. We drove down Texas Panhandle dirt roads none of us had been on before and made multiple stops to discover new sights. We retraced the tracks of buffalo hunters and Comanche warriors and landed on the site of the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. Tall grasses and historical markers met us at the tucked-away site. While we were out there taking in the landscape and trying to imagine what it must have been like on that fateful day in June of 1874, both of my girls managed to get into grassburs. London had a good cry and I had to pull a couple of them out of Ellison’s hair. The tears and hassle were worth it. The grassburs were a visceral reminder that we were out there. – outside, in the thick of it; dealing with all that comes with outdoor adventuring because reading about these sights and keeping close to home simply will not do. 

Our outdoor romp triggered the idea for this logo.¹ It is a grassbur inflorescence and stem. Take a second look at the logo, and you will also notice that the topography of the land surrounding Palo Duro Creative’s headquarters is made up of deep canyons carved by rivers and their tributaries as they wind through this portion of the Texas Panhandle. The Palo Duro Creative grassbur logo symbolizes adventure and resilience. It resonates an attitude that says, “Let’s pull the grassbur out of your hair, and get on with having fun.” That’s life. That’s Palo Duro Creative.

¹ Special thanks to Amanda Scarborough with Scarborough Specialties (http://www.scarspec.com) for taking my logo ideas and turning them into a professional work of art.