Mohawk Community Builders Logo Concepts

Earlier this semester Mohawk College Director of Communications, Jay Robb, alerted us to an interesting initiative being undertaken by the Skilled Trades school. "It turns out one of our skilled trades profs has been doing community projects for the past 3 years," wrote Jay. "Would your students be able to design a logo for them?"



Jay wasn't sure on the name – "Mohawk Community Builders is a possibility," he wrote, and emphasized, "It would need to highlight the skilled trades component." He explained that the logo would be used for community and college fundraisers, for the nonprofit open house after the renos, and for sponsorship packages, media relations and a website.

"This is a project that combines Mohawk's renovation program and our events planning program," concluded Jay. "It's about doing a reno and building community capacity."


Our students love to be challenged and this seemed like another great opportunity to do what we as graphic designers do best: visual problem solving that effectively and dynamically meets the needs of our clients, promotes their products and services and reinforces their mission statements and philosophy. We showed some rough concepts sketches and got an enthusiastic response -- now here's a look at the finished logo designs some of our 4th semester Creative Studio students came up with:

Designer: Vy Pham


Designer: Tom Aceti



Designer: Courtney Pascoe



Designer: Shea Easterbrook



Designer: Amber Matheson



Designer: Nick Sterling



Designer: Christie Hoeksema



Designer: Samille Elliston



Designer: Ange Blomberg



Designer: Sophia Palermo



Designer: Tom Pepper



The students also designed posters that could serve a variety of promotional purposes for the Mohawk Community Builders initiative.



Keep scrolling down to see each of these designs in a larger format.

Mohawk Community Builders Poster Concepts

Inspired by Banksy

This assignment was inspired by the work of the notorious, mysterious (and brilliant) Banksy:

International Women's Day - The Top Ten Posters (Plus 1)

Here are the ten designs our Graphic Design faculty jury chose as their top-ten picks. These were printed in multiples and distributed all over Mohawk College in time for yesterday's celebration of the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day.

* We previously posted all the student entries here.

IF "Sweater"

Once again, here are some examples of what students came up with for the Illustration Friday challenge for the word, "Sweater." This word really seems to have inspired the group - we got so many great solutions!



Above: "People often comment on the sweaters I wear. I always tell them who my #1 sweater inspiration is. … I got it from my Cosby. And he definitely approves." ~ Samille Elliston



Above: "Be ever so careful when you take what you need. Illustrated with a Wacom tablet in Photoshop, using the brush tool and my own photography for some effects." ~ Ange Blomberg



Above: "Sweaters are boring. I didn't want to draw a sweater. Looking to music for inspiration, it came to me: The Sweater Song by Weezer!! Laying down a blue colour similar to their Blue album I started drawing up my 2 colour version of Rivers Cuomo (the lead singer/guitarist) and this is the result!" ~ Nick Stirling



Above: "I had a few ideas for the word sweater but I decided to go with a drawing of an Icanhazcheeseburger image. The image had the words "my gramma madez it" before." ~ Rachael Patterson



Above: "Won't You Be My Neighbour?" ~ Steve Skedden



Above: "I was inspired to create this illustration when I thought about the funny gifts kids get from older relatives." ~ Jenna Bardecki



Above: "Please leave all overcoats, canes, and top hats with the doorman;
from that moment, you'll be out of place and underdressed." What's so bad about standing out?" ~ Amelia Chiarelli



Above: "It seems like once a famous person wears a certain article of clothing that would otherwise be considered ugly, tacky or uncool is instantly wanted by everyone." ~ Brian Kountourogiannis



Above: "Actress Lana Turner. Known as one of the first "Sweater Girls". She is wearing a short-sleeved sweater in this image." ~ Ally Flynn



Above: "This week's Illustration Friday was for the word 'sweater', and I decided to do it about something that means something to me. Everything on the sweater is something that people use to hide their own insecurities, but it's a fact that they all wind up causing problems for you and the people around you. I myself am a repeat offender to some of these (who can say they aren't, really) but lately I've been trying to change. Hense, the little tagline I decided goes with this picture 'That sweater wont keep you warm forever'." ~ Tom Pepper