Design for Service: Keystone Service Visual Identity Project
What makes a good logo? This is a question all the world’s largest brands must answer when designing their visual identity. “It’s super hard to make something simple enough that can clearly show all the values and meaning behind it, because you only have limited space and complexity to work with,” states Cyan Xing a Grade 11 student at Keystone. She and other Keystone students had to tackle the tricky task of logo design as part of the Keystone Service Visual Identity Project – a contest that challenged students to use the same design skills that businesses need when building their brand.
Students had to stretch their creative muscles when entering the Keystone Service Visual Identity Project, and the experience they gained through the activity was incredibly valuable. Additionally, this contest to design seven logos for the seven learning outcomes of Keystone’s Service Learning created a visual identity for learning in the whole Secondary School. The students who entered the contest, either in teams or individually, were all able to contribute their own understanding of service learning to the school community. According to the project organizer, Keystone Secondary School Individuals and Societies teacher Mr. Alfonso Rivera, the goal was to give students a project that would let them tap into their passion and hone their critical and creative thinking skills, all while giving them a sense of ownership related to the pedagogy of service learning and a platform to share their ideas about service learning across the school.
When designing their logos based on the seven learning outcomes – growth, initiative, collaboration, perseverance, globalization, challenge, and ethics – students had to take quite a bit into consideration. In addition to promoting each outcome in a visual context, each logo had to incorporate the essence of Keystone itself. Logos needed to include traditional Chinese art, featuring the importance of the Chinese thread in Keystone’s learning model, and needed to express the school’s values. It’s no wonder that distilling so much meaning into seven small logos became the chief challenge that students faced during this project.
Talking with three of the students who participated in the project, Lulu Wang (Grade 11), Cyan Xing (Grade 11), and Lucy Liu (Grade 10), each had different levels of previous design experience. Although their previous knowledge varied, the students all agreed that condensing such big ideas into small simple logos was the hardest part of the project. Fortunately, the students weren’t alone in completing this assignment.
Once the students submitted their initial designs, they participated in a roundtable session where art and design teachers gave them feedback about their initial ideas. The three students agreed that this activity was a massive help during the project, and they all used the advice the teachers gave them to refine and improve their designs. The second biggest challenge of the project turned out to be time management. After the roundtable, the students were in a rush to complete their designs in time for the final deadline.
After the students submitted their final designs, the committee of volunteer art and design teachers went through all the designs, selecting the ones they believed best represented Keystone’s learning. At the final award ceremony, the winning group’s designs made use of simple but elegant traditional Chinese woodworking mortise and tenon structures that focused on the importance of connections and traditional Chinese culture at Keystone. Beyond spreading the message of service learning, the students sharpened their design skills and explored new software and styles, working collaboratively on a challenging task.
Students weren’t the only ones demonstrating impressive teamwork and dedication throughout the design project. The teachers and school leaders involved in the Keystone Service Visual Identity Project also put a lot of creativity into the contest. As Executive Head of School Dr. Emily McCarren states, “It was fun to see Mr. Alfonso collaborate with teachers and leaders all over campus to create this interdisciplinary experience for interested students—the results were stunning!” The Keystone Service Visual Identity Project was an amazing example of the learning outcomes in action, inspiring participants to reflect on their own learning and share their ideas with the whole Keystone community.
