UMSL Student Group Wins Design Logo Competition

A team from the University of Missouri–St. Louis has won a national student-designed logo contest.

Their creation will be used as the new logo for the American Democracy Project, a multi-campus initiative focused on higher education’s role in producing graduates who are committed to being active, involved citizens in their communities. The project began in 2003 as an initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, in partnership with The New York Times.

The UMSL designed ADP logo features a circle with raised hands in the center.

“The circle is meant to convey continuity, unity, inclusivity – all universal representations of a circle,” said Sivya Smason, a sophomore psychology major at UMSL, who served as creative director and operations manager for the team. “The reaching hands symbolize the power of students and community. The students of the ADP are an integral part of the organization and really where civic engagement begins, so it was important for us to represent the students as part of a bigger whole.”

The new UMSL designed logo for the American Democracy Project.

In June, Smason traveled to the ADP’s national meeting in Denver to receive firsthand the recognition for her team’s winning design. The UMSL team also included Candice Harper and Jacob Endejan, both seniors majoring in business administration, as well as Brianca Johnson, a junior majoring in business administration. The students entered the logo contest as part of a class assignment in Kristy Tucciarone’s Creative Advertising course; a course offered for the Certificate in Advertising.

“I am thrilled to say that out of 33 submissions, a group from my creative advertising class won!” said Tucciarone, associate teaching professor of media studies at the UMSL, who accompanied Smason to Denver along with Patricia Zahn, director of the Des Lee Collaborative Vision and manager of community outreach and engagement at UMSL. Zahn had alerted Tucciarone to the logo competition.

The new logo will appear on most, if not all, printed ADP materials, including brochures, meeting programs and monographs. It will also be included in electronic correspondence and will be prominently featured online on the AASCU website, ADP blog and social media channels.

The ADP received more than 30 logo designs for the competition from more than a dozen campuses. It sponsored the logo competition to commemorate the organization’s 10th anniversary.