Ohana Architects provides solutions for evolving families and communities through architectural space design, renovation AND consulting.
About Ohana Architects
Ohana Architects is on a mission to strengthen communities. Rocky Arnold approaches architecture with an emphasis on the community and family unit. Raised in Hawaii, Rocky has built his career designing spaces for communities to gather, play, work, and evolve. In Hawaiian culture, the concept of “Ohana” refers to the familial relationship as a promise of cooperation, loyalty, and trust. It’s this passion and purpose that Rocky Arnold brings to his work as he designs environments for groups of people to be brought together while the physical space and culture around them may be pushing them apart. As a licensed architect, Rocky Arnold brings a unique perspective on familial and community spaces and acts as a consultant for groups of all sizes to understand their current lifestyle needs while providing options for a new direction. As users consider the options for their home, work, or play space, Rocky uses his passion for design to meet both the functional and aesthetic needs to foster a flourishing environment. Rocky Arnold operates Ohana Architects surrounded by his young family between San Diego, California, Honolulu, Hawaii and Nashville, Tennessee.
About the Logo
The design for the Ohana Architects logo is inspired by the kalo (taro) plant, which is a native Hawaiian plant that is also a popular food source in Hawaii, poi. In the early moments of brainstorming for the logo, my wife said: "I envision something simple and green to demonstrate life; perhaps your logo could be a kalo plant!". I said, "Well, I don’t know; that seems kind of cliché for a logo in Hawaii". For those of you living outside Hawaii, this is a very beautiful and recognizable plant used in a lot of Hawaiian imagery and logo. She then took the next step to look up “kalo” on Wikipedia and found this description:
"…the Hawaiian term for family, ʻohana, is derived from ʻohā, the shoot or sucker which grows from the kalo corm. The reason being: as young shoots grow from the corm of the kalo plant, so people, too, grow from their family."
Wow! Through her research we discovered that the word Ohana, the driving concept behind my business, is directly related to the kalo plant! AND, the reason behind this connection is how family members are developed and raised. With this knowledge, the kalo plant now MUST be my logo! I then reached out to Joe Preston, a close friend and graphic genius, to develop the logo. Joe attended architecture school with me, and has gone on to become a web developer. I won’t explain the logo any further in language, but I have included his concept sketches for you to see our thought process!
