Celebration of Scholars Logo
Competition Winning Design

The celebration of scholars is an event that welcomes Carthage students and faculty to showcase their most transcendent works of scholarship, research, and creativity to the greater Carthage community. I was overjoyed and beyond thankful to be given the chance to create an Identity system that portrays the immense amount of strength, dedication, and motivation these faculty and students have. I believe I have come up with a logo to make the gears in your head turn.

“Visually convey the message of the celebration of scholars: exposition of student and faculty research, scholarship and creativity”

Final Design

Behind The Design

The Inspiration

When starting the research process, I found myself looking for inspiration that embodies the Celebrations of Scholars, and its participants. The words strength, dedication, and motivation led me to look deeper into industrial revolution. As I kept researching, I found out a gear is used as a symbol for strength, and immediately knew I had to incorporate the concept of a gear into my design.

The Inspiration

Created in Adobe Illustrator

The Three Gears

I chose to work with three gears to represent the three important aspects of the Celebration of Scholars: research, scholarship, and creativity. It is also to represent the three aspects of the Carthage mission “Seeking Truth, Building Strength, Inspiring Service—Together”.

The Colors

The color choice was made after looking out my window and seeing the beautiful sun rise over Lake Michigan. In this design, I chose to have the center of the gears as a sun, and the gears themselves as a the rays branching out to Carthage and its community to represent the motivation that is crucial, for both students and faculty. This event highlights all the hard work these people do for their work, and the motivation that got them to the Celebration of Scholars event.

The Location

I Chose to highlight the location by representing it with something that we are lucky to see, a sunrise on Lake Michigan. I believe it is important to emphasize the concept of living where your feet are, especially in days like this. The Celebration of Scholars is an event to celebrate how far these students and staff have come, and the impact their hard work has on its community. The waves represent the obstacles that have occured on their way to the Celebration of Scholars, and the importance of being grounded, and appreciating the journey along the way.