Hello, Outsiders! This week we are switching things up, instead of highlighting and showcasing a story, article, or blog, we want to introduce our community to a team member at Literally Outside. This team member does stellar work, is an integral part of our team, and contributes greatly to our success. In this week’s article, we are sharing highlights from a conversation with Brand & Creative Director of Literally Outside, Liz Sarb. We invite you on a journey to read more about why she joined Literally Outside, her role on the team, her aspirations for the brand, how she fulfills our mission of empowering everyone to feel comfortable exploring the great outdoors, and words of inspiration for the readers! Please enjoy.
Liz Sarb is a freelance graphic designer (see her work here), who enjoys working with small businesses and non-profits to create brand identities, marketing material, and websites — all intended to assist organizations in better engaging with their customers.
Liz brought her talents and skills to Literally Outside (L/O) when her cousin-in-law, Steffan Williams (L/O Founder and CEOutsider), first shared his vision with her. She immediately saw the potential and was thrilled at the thought of helping build a brand from the ground up.
Her enthusiasm for joining the L/O team extended far beyond her professional passion for building strong brands. The mission and values of encouraging all to be outdoors are deeply aligned with Liz's personal values. She wanted to be a part of a business and team striving to bridge this gap. She looked forward to joining the L/O team as an opportunity to become a better ally to fix the problems of diversity, equity, and inclusion that exist in outdoor spaces. During the initial conversation, Liz recalls the strong vision Steffan had for the business and his hopes for branding and aesthetics, but she especially enjoyed the high level of ownership he gave her to advise on how it was best implemented. As Liz put it, she saw joining the Literally Outside team as an outstanding creative partnership to create positive and lasting change in the world.
Literally Outside has accomplished a lot in the past few months, from launching the Heritage Collection to building community, and connecting people with the outdoors. However, there is still much to learn, do, and accomplish. Liz is excited to continue supporting Literally Outside's founders, Steffan and Taylor Williams (Co-Creator & Swagger Advocate), and their vision and mission to help L/O become a recognized brand. As the Brand & Creative Director, she hopes to see the website and logo design become a conversation starter and get people excited about the brand. Liz believes this is crucial because once it happens, more people will have access to what Literally Outside has to offer, and the mission will reach increasingly more people. She is most excited about creating a unique and unforgettable experience for customers when they interact with Literally Outside. Aside from her personal aspirations for what Literally Outside could be, she is very excited to see how the brand will continue to support community events and develop additional strategies that encourage more people to get in the community, get outdoors, and help the planet.
While each of Literally Outside's four core values is equally important, Liz personally identifies with one in particular, and she commonly considers it through her work. The value of Literally Accessible, where we work to encourage an environment that is comfortable & inviting for all and create pieces of clothing that are too, greatly resonates with her. Prior to working with Literally Outside, Liz, like many others, thought you had to be a certain type of person, shop at certain places, and act a certain way to be considered “outdoorsy”. Through her work, she has realized that this statement is not true and that the message of encouraging everyone to get outdoors is extremely important. Liz also points out that her work of finding ways to creatively communicate the mission and values of Literally Outside so that people can easily understand it, is quite literally making it accessible - a responsibility that's extremely important to her.
Liz has personally experienced Literally Outside's purpose to empower everyone to feel comfortable exploring the great outdoors. Currently, Liz's primary and favorite outdoor activity is running outdoors and she is presently training for a half marathon. Besides running, she has recently purchased a home with a lot of garden space, and is currently learning more about gardening so she can enjoy it to its fullest, and hopes to someday be growing flowers and berries, and maybe even vegetables. Liz is truly living up to our mission of being comfortable in the great outdoors and enjoying many of its wonders.
Lastly, Liz wants those within the Literally Outside community and beyond to learn about the insights she has gained as the recent health crisis begins to fade. She realized that the more she went outside, the more she connected with her community and got to see and meet new people. And after being inside for so long, she feels so driven to go outside and be a contributing member of her community. She has recognized this as an amazing value of Literally Outside and encourages people to pursue and appreciate that part of their lives that was taken away for so long.
Liz is an integral part of Literally Outside’s success. From the continuous website updates to the thoughtful brand and marketing materials and strategies - she enhances our identity within the world for how we see ourselves and how you see us. Liz, thank you for all you do and for helping us bring our vision to life – we are forever grateful for you!