Forest Park District 91 schools now have a new logo — designed by a third-grader.
School staff, students and community members recently cast more than 700 votes for a new logo, and on Dec. 18, the results were in: Nialiah (last name withheld by D91), a student at Grant-White Elementary School, drew up the winning design for her district, which features students of all colors reaching together for an apple.
“It’s exciting to be able to have a logo that represents the school district but also was inspired by students’ artwork,” said Rebecca Latham, district spokeswoman.
A graphic designer will now re-imagine Nialiah’s logo, which will eventually be posted on the school website and materials throughout the year.
Designing a new logo was part of the district’s to-do list for the year. In August 2016, the district launched a new website, ForestParkSchools.org. When web developers designed the new site, they used a black-and-white picture of an apple with a circle around it as the school logo, rather than including the district’s old insignia, which Latham said resembled the cartoon character Gumby.
In the beginning of 2017, district officials hired Chicago-based graphic designer Rachel Koesser to redesign all the school mascots, in an effort to standardize them stylistically. Prior to that, schools just used clip-art of a bear, eagle, shark and more. This past October, the district followed up with the plan to redesign its logo.
D91 solicited design proposals from students across the schools, and received 25 ideas over the next month. On Nov. 21, the design contest closed, and Latham, Supt. Louis Cavallo and officials from the district office chose three finalists — one from each school.
“Any chosen would be an awesome fit for the district,” Latham said.
Throughout the month of December, students, staff and community members cast more than 700 votes for their favorite design. And on Dec. 18, Nialiah was announced as the winner.
