Peter Kline established Seattle, WA based Marathons With Meaning with a mission to "give back" to society in a very powerful way by including special-needs children and children with disabilities in the marathon experience.
Following his first marathon at age 53, he began giving the "rider-athlete" child an opportunity to compete in a marathon of their own by pushing a custom runner/stroller the entire 26.2-mile journey.
Peter needed a logo in time for the MWM Ultra 100, coinciding with the 2017 Alaska Airlines Rock-n-Roll Seattle Marathon. As this was to be a high-visibility event, the logo needed to represent Marathons with Meaning by illustrating concepts like Inspiration, Inclusion, Kindness, Passion, and Giving Back.
Brainstorming via thumbnail drawings, keeping the above concepts in mind: Inspiration, Inclusion, Kindness, Passion, and Giving Back. The two designs I felt most confident about are shown below.
I tried a few variations of the hands/heart design, anticipating this would be the one preferred by Mr. Kline. Rather, he was taken with the mountains design so we moved forward with a final version, along with a few black & white and monochrome variations of the logo for printing on dark and light backgrounds.
Finally, I felt it appropriate to choose certain colors that carry with them generally agreed-on meanings. The meanings should enhance the life-affirming message demonstrated by Peter Kline and Marathons with Meaning. With a tiny bit of research, I turned up the following associations:
