Brian rabadeau
Equinox Staff
The winner of the Keene State College ID contest was announced last Friday.
KSC students were given the opportunity to submit their designs in hopes of winning the contest. The winner of the contest was decided by a vote cast by the student body.
A $250 cash prize for the winning design was awarded. Many participated in the contest, but only one design was left standing.
Victoria White, a junior who is majoring in graphic design, was pronounced the winner.
White’s design won 33 percent of the vote, 929 out of 2746 votes, according to an e-mail sent out with the total results.
“I was really excited when I found out I won,” White said.
White shared her joy with her parents, who she said she called immediately.
“I think they were more excited than I was,” she said.
The contest inspired many different students to express their creativity and provided an opportunity to have their art lamented in the minds on KSC students.
Each designer took pride in their work and the idea that their art would be showcased for the entire student body to see.
“I think students might enjoy my fresh vertical design,” contestant and junior Garrett Beltis said. “I think the distorted background images might come off edgier and more unique.”
The designs entered in the contest show the diversity of perspectives in terms of art.
“The design I entered is a black and white picture of Appian Way with the KSC owl on the front with a red stripe running across it,” Brittany Bianchi, a graphic design major, said.
The contest winner, White said she didn’t find a need to create a complex design.
“I created my ID with the idea of simplicity in mind. I knew from the start I wanted to make it bright, bold and eye-catching. I used basic shapes and lines in the KSC’s colors to create the frame of the card,” White explained. White added that her design “had to include Hootie the Owl, which gives the card some style as well as some school spirit.”
The Keene State College mascot was a common theme for other entries in the contests.
Beltis showed this while he elaborated on his design.
“My design was the only vertical one I believe,” Beltis said. “A simple composition similar to what we have now with a deconstruction version of our owl logo in the background.”
Inspirations for designs included approaching the work with simplicity and deconstruction of images, Beltis said about his own personal vision for his work.
Yet others had more blunt inspirations for entering the contest, such as junior Brooks Dubois, a computer science major. “I did it for the money, for the power, and for the respect,” Dubois said.
Dubois’ design was a picture of fall foliage, and didn’t make the finals because his design didn’t coincide with the rules of the contest.
“I was disappointed when they didn’t pick mine. I saw the other entries and they only used three colors. I guess that was a qualification that they wanted,” Dubois said.
Other inspirations included a desire to get their work noticed. “I’m a graphic design major and I just wanted to put my work out there after I saw the contest posted on my KSC,” Bianchi said. “I also thought it was interesting to add a picture to the new ID.”
The spark for this change came about from the need to have a fresh look on ID card. According to Bianchi, the current ID card has been around for 20 years.
“So I think it could use a change,” she said. The boring nature of the school ID actually inspired a need for a design to enter the contest and change the look, students said.
Bianchi said the current ID is boring which provoked the interest in making and the submitting the design.
Beltis said also he felt the look of the current ID was too standard and lacked flavor.
“The current design had no extraneous images, just the bare basics,” Beltis stated.
“I think it’s clear that the new campus logo required a new ID design.”
Dubois also commented on the ID by saying, “It’s not even a design.”
White, who plans to use the prize money from the contest towards a new bike, graciously accepted her victory.
“It’s an honor to have made the new KSC ID that will be distributed to new KSC students in the future,” White concluded.
Brian Rabadeau can be contacted at
brabadeau@keene-equinox.com