When Lake-Sumter State College needed a new logo to promote its Kids’ College summer program the school turned its scholastic neighbor.
Armed with a broad theme, “Time to Shine 2019,” Beacon College students in Sandy Novak’s fall semester advertising design class took up the gauntlet — with winning results.
Lake-Sumter’s Kids’ College summer program, funded by Lake-Sumter State College’s Continuing Education, has delivered for the past 28 years scholastic, athletic and artistic enrichment for students in grades two through nine.
Once, Kids’ College used professional graphic designers to freshen its yearly themes. Several years ago, Lake-Sumter turned to Beacon students for fresh ideas from younger creatives that school officials believed more likely would connect with kids.
In all, 11 students submitted logo designs.
The students’ Lake-Sumter clients, web designer Francita Williams, a web designer, and DeAnna Diggs, who manages Kids’ College for LSSC, sat in on Novak’s classes.
“As the students developed their ideas and produced their digital designs, the classroom transformed into a genuine studio atmosphere, filled with energy and creativity,” Novak said.
Eventually, Diggs and Williams whittled down the contenders to three.
Laura Delley’s witty take on the theme — geometric cubes each stamped with a single program benefit hug a shiny lightbulb emblazoned with the “Time to Shine” slogan — showed Delley benefitted from a creative lightbulb moment. Her design earned third place.
Meanwhile, Matthew Adair rocketed to runner-up with his out-of-this-world astronaut design.
However, Halie Pattison’s superhero-inspired take on the theme outmuscled the other contenders for first place.
She credits Novak as her muse.
“At first I was not really sure what my design for the logo was going to be,” said Pattison, a junior. “But with a little help from Professor Novak, ideas of a superhero-themed logo started to come into my head as I was looking at stock photos. The final idea for the logo came when I was looking at photos of the Earth. There was one photo where people were circling around the Earth and it sparked an idea in me. So I recreated it using superheroes and my own little spin on it.”
No surprise that winning sent Pattison into a bit of a spin.
It “was a really big shock,” she said. “At first, I didn’t really think that they said my name until my best friend and roommate Avi[tal Plotkin], who was sitting beside me, nudged me to get up to receive my prize for winning. It didn’t come to me that I won until after I sat down in my chair after getting my prize from the ladies. It made me feel proud of my designing talents. It also made me feel like I can design anything when I put my mind and heart into it.”
That too was the take for Novak, an associate professor in the business and technology department at Beacon College, a nonprofit liberal arts school and America’s first accredited baccalaureate institution to award bachelor’s degrees primarily to students who learn differently. Her students’ talent, she said, shined through in their creative output.
The top three students received gift bags of swag and gift cards. Lake-Sumter will use Pattison’s design for this year’s summer program on the school’s website, in promotional materials and on T-shirts, caps and other gift items.
“My students are doing great work,” Novak said. “I’m so very proud of them.”