The Surfing Midwife

As I speak to you now, I am sitting at the window counter of a cafe in a renovated colonial-style building on a Cape Town beach front.
Muizenberg beach to be specific. Johnny Cash plays in the background and in front of me, sparkling lines in the ocean stack up to the horizon. A multitude of rubber clad surfers play in the glassy but cold, no. Lets call it what it is.. frigid water. Its just a terribly appropriate setting for me to tell you about this recent branding project I did for Margreet, also known as the 'Surfing Midwife'. 

 I'd love to share with you what this lady is all about so that you can get to know her better. Not only is she a talented and passionate surfer, the Surfing Midwife makes waves in her community too. 
I grew up in the Eastern Cape, and if you have spent any amount of time there, you will immediately see why it bears the title of South Africa's most impoverished province. Margreet noticed a deep need for better healthcare and parental education amongst the many underprivileged mama's and babies where she is based in Jeffreys Bay, and
unlike most of us, she decided to use her skills to actually do something about it. Through compassion and I'm sure no small amount of dedication, The Healthy Mom and Baby Clinic was born. It is a non-profit organization which provides quality healthcare, support and post-natal education to underprivileged expectant and new mothers. This means that both they and their children get the best possible start, irrespective of their income. What a beautiful cause with such a far-reaching positive impact.. 

Her blog, the Surfing Midwife is a place to share her stories and experiences encountered along the unusual path that surfing and midwifery and have led her on. I was obviously intrigued and so keen to design a blog header for her.

Being a fellow gurfer (that is, a girl surfer), identifying with this awesome lady and her love of surfing and the ocean was no challenge. However when it came down to the midwifery part, well.. not quite as relateable! She envisioned a simple logo combining illustrations of both elements of her unusual title. But because both spheres of interest are so fundamentally different from each other, I thought a literal interpretation would fall short of representing her. I believe that the title alone does the job of explaining what she does better than any actual surf/midwifery elements thrown together would achieve. I used calm, blue shades and slowly built up layers of 'waves' with watercolour to create the background pattern. It creates a lulling, natural, peaceful feel reminiscent of surfing and the energies you would want to focus on during pregnancy, although goodness knows all that goes straight out the window during labour! I also think the 'wave' shapes are reminiscent of pregnant bellies, but that is perhaps me indulging my Fine Art background and reading too much into things ;) Anyway, I hand-painted the text and converted it to white to contrast it against the dark background of the waves to make it stand out clearly.
All in all I think it makes a successful blog header and I had a lot of fun with this technique.

To learn more about the Surfing Midwife you can visit her page and you can spread the care and compassion by donating to the Healthy Mom and Baby clinic here to help them continue the incredible work they do.

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