Mind Over Mountain

Mind Over Mountain is a nonprofit outdoor life coaching organization based in Truckee, California, serving teens and young adults across the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Founded by Andrew Bertalan, a certified youth resilience coach, the organization pairs adventure sports, hiking, climbing, paddleboarding, mountain biking, and snow sports, with one-on-one and group life coaching to help young people build confidence, resilience, and self-efficacy.

When Andrew came to Caviar, Mind Over Mountain had a logo that wasn’t doing the mission justice. He described it simply, it sucked. For a nonprofit built on adventure and growth, the existing mark felt flat and out of step with the energy of the program. Andrew needed something that felt youthful without being childish, grounded in the outdoors without being generic, and strong enough to carry the organization forward.

Caviar designed a badge-style logo symbol for Mind Over Mountain from the ground up, moving through two rounds of hand-sketched concepts before translating the strongest direction into a polished, color-refined final mark. The process was fast, focused, and collaborative. From first sketch to final file delivery, the entire project wrapped in under four weeks.

Andrew came in with a clear visual reference point: the structured badge logos of classic outdoor brands, with perimeter text, nature elements inside, and a flat illustrated style. National Parks Collective was the benchmark for badge architecture. Aberfforest Coffee Co. showed the perimeter text treatment he was after. The brief was specific and well-considered, which gave Doug a strong foundation to work from.

The core ask: a single circular or oval badge containing mountain, tree, sun, and river elements, with “Mind Over Mountain” wrapping the perimeter as border text. Symbol only: no color in the initial exploration, keeping the focus on form and composition before committing to a palette.

Caviar opened with a full round of hand-drawn badge concepts, exploring different shapes, levels of detail, and ways to balance the nature elements inside the frame. Andrew reviewed the sketches over a weekend and came back with a clear favorite: a vertical, pointed badge with strong symmetry, good dead space in the text area, and a font that felt youthful without tipping into juvenile.

The feedback sharpened things further. Andrew wanted to see the font from his second-favorite dropped into the top pick, and asked for more iterations of the vertical pointed badge form. He also opened up the subtitle area to fit “outdoor youth life coaching” into the perimeter. The second sketch round delivered exactly that, and one direction pulled clearly ahead of the rest.

With the logo form locked, the team moved into color. Rather than describing it in words, Andrew came prepared with visual references: logos from outdoor brands that captured the vibe he was after. Lighter earth tones, true to the mountain setting, but kept bright and optimistic to reflect the energy of the program and the age of the people it serves.
Caviar translated that direction into a set of color explorations on the chosen badge form. Andrew landed on option 4: a warm, bright earth tone palette that felt grounded and alive at the same time.

Once color was confirmed, the team moved quickly. Final production files, SVG, PNG, and AI, were delivered the same day Andrew approved the direction. The logo was live on the Mind Over Mountain website within hours.