2-15-2016
The CEO Council recently launched Greater Peoria Works, a work experience program that aims to identify, encourage and assist area employers with providing 1,000 non-permanent, recurring jobs or work-based learning opportunities to regional high school and college students to assist them to develop job-related skills and attitudes.
Before the program launched in December, the CEO Council Work Experience Committee turned to Illinois Central College (ICC) students for help with a critical aspect of the program, the logo. Professor David Smit and his Advanced Graphic Design students used the Work Experience Program as their semester project, during which they would design a logo from concept to creation. The students worked through naming methodologies to come up with three different working titles for the project and then each student worked through a creative brief of approximately 100 sketches before narrowing them down to their three best selections that were developed into a digital logo.
In November of 2015, ten Advanced Graphic Design Students were invited to present their logos to the full CEO Council membership. Matt George, President of Children’s Home Association stated, “They were all excellent. You could have put all the logos in a hat and just pulled one of them out and it would have worked for the program”.
Inga Anderson’s Greater Peoria Works logo was chosen as the winner. Inga is a Sophomore from Peoria, IL scheduled to graduate with her Associates in Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design in May of this year. When researching for inspiration for her logo, Inga stumbled upon old propaganda posters from the 1930’s for the Works Progress Association (WPA). She used bright colors, bold fonts and clean lines to develop her logo. Inga wanted to describe the purpose of the program, but also state what is to be gained by utilizing the program.
The CEO Council recently submitted Inga’s logo to the local American Advertising Awards hosted by the Peoria Ad Club for aspects of marketing in the student division. Inga took Gold in her category and will be moving on to the District 6 competition featuring Gold winners from Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.
Jim Lynch, President of the CEO Council, shared his thoughts, “The CEO Council is very grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the talented students from Professor Smit’s Advanced Graphic Design class. This was a wonderful collaboration between the CEO Council and member organization ICC. Truly, it is an excellent example of what we are trying to accomplish through Greater Peoria Works – providing work based learning opportunities to high school and college age students while providing job related attitudes and skills. This was a success on many fronts.”
Inga Anderson with her Award Winning Greater Peoria Works logo
Bruce Budde (Interim President, ICC), Inga Anderson & David Smit (Professor, ICC)
