For this month’s collaborative mural project, we asked our friend, Journey Through, to come in and beautify our wall. For this project, he brought the outdoors in—literally. After spending time hiking around Austin, he found piece of limestone, brought it to our office, ground it up and painted it on our wall.

How’d he do it? And what inspires him to continue to spread awareness about Mother Nature and the resources she provides all of us through art? We’ll let him tell you himself! Also, be sure to check out the video he made of his chalk masterpiece.

Journey Through is the alias of Heath Brodie, and aims to promote awareness of the natural environment by using the natural world as both palette and paint. Journey Through’s goal, guided by positive growth and change, is about helping others become aware of opportunity in the ordinary.

At it’s heart, Journey Through is inspired by the process of how nature transforms and innovates itself as much as how we humans interact with the earth. Journey Through aims to enhance sensitivity of the local environment by using the natural resources that are close at hand and make the process of creating art as meaningful as nature itself.

Can you tell us a little bit about the work you created for The Black Sheep Agency office? Where did you get the idea, and what do you want viewers to learn from it?

Knowing that the design would reside on a blackboard, the first thing that needed to be done was find the chalk. Luckily, chalk is made from limestone (calcium carbonate), which is not scarce in Texas. I collected the raw chalk for this piece from Walnut Creek in Austin.

Since we have just had the Summer solstice, the idea was to celebrate this seasonal change. The circular design represents the never-ending circle of life and the Earth of which the work is made from. The Chinese celebrate the solstice as Yin (white), which represents femininity and the summer and is the reasoning behind the color palette. The Native Americans are said to have used the Big Horn Medicine Wheel for the solstice, which has 28 lines of stones radiating out to align the sun during the event. These 28 lines have been used to create the boundary lines of the spiral shapes. While the spirals represent the constant motion of evolution, nature and the expanding universe, the inner drops are the representation of seeds/life/growth; and the zigzag on the outer of the design represents the layer of earth with Native American representations of Earth Mother to the Sky Father.

https://youtu.be/eCGBkKG0UZs?list=UUmp2Bv8_Fq9ltZVJAdO76ng

Nature is what drives the Journey! Every part of nature not only inspires, but also dictates what is produced! I have been lucky enough to experience many cultures around the world and I use their local knowledge for inspiration.

If you could be any artistic tool — pencil, crayons, oil pastels, computer, etc. — which one would you be?

What is your favorite thing you have created?

Just before I moved to America, I was sponsored for a bronze workshop with a local artist, Grant Palliser, in Nelson, New Zealand, where I’m from. I made a series of bird heads of a bird called the Huia, which is now extinct. I’m working towards doing a series of native birds.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning?

Open my eyes and let the light flood in! Then it’s time to brew a pot of tea.

What’s the first thing you do when you start a new project?

Let my mind wander by usually going for a walk through nature.

Artist are notoriously weird. Prove it. (Or argue it.)

I’m the dude walking the streets picking up feathers and earth in 100-degree weather.

Black Sheep interviews artist Journey Through.

Interview with Journey Through

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Across almost every social media platform, visual content is king. The human brain processes visual information 600,000 times faster than text alone, and visual content generates up to 94 percent more views.

You’ve invested in the time and resources it takes to identify the appropriate channel for your brand, and you are ready to start tweeting, posting and pinning. But we aren’t all Rembrandt when it comes to creating compelling social media images and videos.

Luckily for us, there are numerous mobile apps that make social media content creation simple, fun and easy! Below are some mobile apps that make anyone with a smartphone and five minutes a social media maven.

Hyperlapse was released by Instagram just last month, and has already skyrocketed to the top of the Apple App Store. The app creates beautiful and seamless timelapse videos with a sleek and seamless user interface. The technology used by Hyperlapse cures camera shake, and videos can be uploaded directly to many social media platforms.

Memes (photos with superimposed text) traditionally perform well on social media because they are easily sharable. Quick allows a user to add text, with multiple different font choices, onto photos and share on social media. The app comes with several great-looking font choices and is user friendly.

Did you take a bunch of photos on your phone during an event, but are not sure what to do with them? Vigo Video solves this problem by taking your photos and creating short, digital stories with music and text. The app handles all of the hard work—you just select the photos and Flipagram weaves together a sharable video.

Tangent adds texture and shapes to otherwise boring pictures. This app is a little more complex and not as intuitive as other apps, but it shouldn’t be discounted. With a little practice, your photos can come alive with this mobile app.

By far, the most advanced and user-friendly video app we’ve seen is Magisto. With dozens of video themes to choose from, Magisto creates studio-quality content that looks like it was created by an experienced videographer. The only downside to this app is the price. While it is free to use, downloading your newly created videos will cost your 99 cents per video or a monthly subscription fee. But we think it is worth it— so worth it.

Whether you are a small business owner with limited resources or a company leader looking to elevate your own personal brand, these mobile apps can make you stand out among your peers on social media. With technology available that makes our social lives this much easier, there is no excuse for not investing in better content. Post on, we say. Post on.

Five Mobile Apps to Make Your Social Media Content Stand Out

The description of five different mobile apps that are efficient for social content.