By Chance Austin-Brecher, Canyonlands Restoration Supervisor
San Diego is one of the most biodiverse regions in the whole world, but it also has a rich cultural diversity and nowhere is that more evident than in the neighborhood that San Diego Canyonlands calls home: City Heights. There are upwards of 40 different languages and 100 dialects spoken here. There’s also five beautiful canyons nestled right in the heart of this neighborhood that our teams work hard to restore and maintain for the people to use and enjoy. City Heights has been a historically underserved neighborhood here in San Diego and that has also been historically reflected in the lack of green space available for its residents. Canyonlands has made it an intrinsic part of our ethos and identity to try and make these canyons as much a part of the identity of this neighborhood as the people who call it home. That’s why we helped develop the City Heights Loop Trail, it’s why we work so hard to maintain it, and it’s why it’s the centerpiece of the Canyonlands Nature Challenge and Hike-a-thon.
In order to really help the Loop Trail pop and to make things easier for the participants, we hired a local artist/designer, Maria de Lourdes Muñoz, to create a trail map for you to use as you discover the beauty of these spaces.
Lourdes has an extensive background in doing art and design work for conservation focused organizations and was the perfect person to help create the Loop Trail map. We wanted to highlight her to show off why the work she’s done for the Nature Challenge is so important and to give some insight into how her wonderful artistic sensibilities have made this map so helpful and exciting!
How did your journey with art and design begin?
My career path happened by accident! I was graduating high school unsure of what I wanted to do in life and had taken a random website design class my senior year and took a shot in the dark and applied as a Graphic Design major. I got very lucky to fall into a field that I loved, having been in pure academics my whole life, transitioning to a fine arts degree was something I never imagined but enjoyed and thrived in. Once I got to the end of my undergraduate career I once again faced the challenge of figuring out what path I wanted to take in the workforce.
Additionally, what’s your journey with nature been? Are there ways in which nature informs your design sensibilities?
Believing marketing and corporate design to be my only choice, I was happily surprised when I found an opening at a local zoo. I was able to combine my love for nature and conservation with my career path. All my portfolio school work funnily centered conservation work in forms of infographics and other educational materials but it had never occured to me to make that my living. Once there I got sucked into the non-profit life and continued working at multiple Conservation organizations, from zoos to gardens and now at a Bird Conservation org! I love that I can combine my two passions and be part of the change. I strive to make my designs accessible and help the audience enjoy learning about these causes. Making the designs fun and bright, drawing inspiration from the animals and the nature they live in so that information is more approachable.
You seem to be an avid nature photographer, could you talk about your approach to capturing the natural world with pictures?
What started as a hobby in college turned into part of my job description. Having taken classes in college honing in on my main subject matter, capturing nature, I spent my college years going out into national parks, zoos and even just my college campus looking for wildlife around me and unknowingly building up my portfolio for my Zoo days. Ever since then, I have incorporated photography as one of my main skills and duties at every organization I've worked at. I always say that I take 500 photos just to end up with 7 good ones from the bunch. Although I enjoy plant and nature photography, animals have always been my main love. Capturing their personalities and highlighting their beauty has always been what I strive for, and I've been very lucky to have wildlife as my coworker!
Where do you see the role of art and design in generating social and environmental change?
Part of the transition from the zoo and garden world to a more heavily focused conservation group has been my want to be more involved in the activism side of conservation. Using my skills as a designer to help colleges educate not only the general public but state legislators as well. Working on large projects globally to change environments and laws to help birds and their habitats. A lot of what is done is also helping teach people about what they can do to make a bigger impact and show them why it is important, and good design helps with that. I've always been in the non-profit conservation world and can never picture myself working anywhere but, surrounded by people who are as passionate about the change they are creating as I am. Going into work is never a boring day.
Being a designer, there is a lot that I'm not skilled at when it comes to conservation/restoration. It can seem daunting to think about everything going on in the world and your role in it. But everyone has a role in conservation and using what skills I do have is of big help to the scientists and conservationists out there doing the heavy work. I take pride in what I do and being able to support my colleagues in their efforts, creating pieces that share their work to others. Making what they are doing more digestible to the day to day person so that they can continue sharing our work as well as hopefully helping the cause in whatever way they can. When it comes to nature and wildlife conservation, they do not have a voice to reach out for help and that's where we step in to help stop and restore the damage that we as a society have caused.
Would you walk us through your process for designing the City Heights Loop Trail map?
When it comes to the visitor side of my design work for organizations like zoos, gardens, and San Diego Canyonlands, my main priority is making the information being shared simple and impactful! Using colors and illustrations to draw the viewer in and laying out information in a way that isn't overwhelming and comprehensible. The City Heights Loop Trail map was a fun project as I was able to transform a very busy map into something that was pleasing to look at and easy to read.
Although I often find myself designing maps, I'm not always the best at reading them and so I become the perfect test subject to test out my own designs and its legibility. It's always fun to work with others in the orgs to see what needs highlighting and learning more about the paths and what there is to experience out on the trails. It is then my job to translate that information and showcase as much information as I can for guests while keeping as simple as possible to not clutter up the map. At the end of the day whether it be a map or interpretive signage, my goal is to make something pretty to look at and teach a little something along the way to hopefully inspire people to learn more, or in the maps case, take that hike with confidence!
Register FREE for the Nature Challenge & Hike-a-thon to access the redesigned Loop Trail Map and other helpful resources.