Country Brand Index Competition

Last month, an international design studio called FutureBrand sponsored a competition for college design students to develop a logo for the “brand” of America. I learned about this competition about two weeks before the deadline, whereas the full timeframe was about two months

I immediately saw an opportunity and had my nine Graphics 3 students and my two studio assistants create entries for the contest, with full knowledge that they could not win because it was officially open only to college students. Most of the students were up to the challenge and dug right in.

In total, I accepted eight entries for consideration from Spotswood High School. Out of those eight, three were considered qualified enough to compete against college students and can be seen on the main home page of the competition website. Their appearance on the home page is tantamount to an "honorable mention" - quite an honor for high school students going up against college students and a VERY condensed time frame!

Kudos to Kyle Lacina, Brendan Parks and Jackie Johnsen (also our Channel 3 logo designer) for their achievement! You can see the web page that they appear on here:

http://www.countrybrandindex.com/brand-america/student-design-contest/

I believe that this is a justification that high school students are capable of not only learning about design, but are capable of producing worthy work as well. They may not have the focus or drive that a college-level design student has; they may not have the artistic talent; they may not fully understand the impact that design has on their world, but that is no reason to support their ignorance and delay their education until college.

While I fully support the practice of "scaffolding" and starting their education in design at a more modest level, I also believe that exposure to design at any level prior to college is a good thing. Even if a student is not destined for design studies of any kind, an early exposure can build an awareness and appreciation for design that might carry through to their careers and build a better client for the future.