High school student designs library’s new logo
By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
The East Troy Lions Public Library has been revamping its website and as part of the project, graphic arts students from East Troy High School were invited to design and submit a logo for the library.
High school senior Rachel Gilpatrick designed both the first- and second-place winning logos and was presented with a check for $150 at a ceremony at the library on Jan. 9.
“Both my staff and the library board felt strongly about involving the students of this community in the effort to create a new logo rather than hiring an outside artist to design one. The Friends of the Library also strongly supported this and gave us the money for the prize awards,” Library Director Jeff Gartman said.
East Troy High School graphic arts teacher Lori Puls said Gartman contacted her to ask if she had any students who might be interested in designing the new logo.
“I proposed it to the graphics arts class and each of the 12 students submitted two logos each,” she said.
The students worked on the project during the fall.
“We had some parameters,” Puls said. “The logo had to include the Village Square and that did make it a bit challenging for the students, but they stepped up, particularly Rachel.”
Puls said she was impressed with Gilpatrick’s creativity and use of color and form in the design.
“It’s simple, contemporary and I think it captures where the village is going,” she said.
Gilpatrick said she enjoyed the project and having the opportunity to create the logo.
“It was my first experience using Photoshop and it was really fun,” she said. “I sketched it out first and worked on ways to include the Village Square and when I was happy with that, I put it all together in Photoshop.”
Gilpatrick said she chose to color the logo with muted shades because she didn’t want anything too bold or bright as she felt it would be distracting. The band shelter on the logo is done in teal and blue shades with the books between the columns multicolored in red, orange, yellow, green blue and grey.
“I just though the subtle colors would look nicer,” she said.
The library board, the Friends of the Library, and other invited guests got together to choose a new logo on Dec. 12. The logos were submitted without the students names on them, Puls said, and Gilpatrick’s designs received both the prizes for first- and second-place.
Gilpatrick’s mom, Lisa, said her daughter was excited about the project while she was working on it.
“She said she thought it was really important and this could be a way for her to leave her footprint somewhere, a kind of legacy in East Troy,” Lisa Gilpatrick said. “She’s always been an extremely hard worker and very dedicated to what she does.”
Rachel Gilpatrick said she is planning on attending the University of Wisconsin-Stout in the fall of 2018 to study art and graphic design.
