Content provided in partnership with

Badge of honor - Community connections - Cover Story - techniques of art instructors - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, Dec, 2001 by Cindy Carter

As art instructors, we are always looking for ways to promote and elevate the awareness and importance of art in our daily lives. One of the best ways to do this is to expose our classroom activities to as many people as possible through art shows and exhibits.

I recently had a great opportunity to do this when our local police department asked me about involving my students in creating a new logo design for their uniforms and police vehicles. This turned out to be a great design experience for my students.

Instructions to my students were minimal: Create a badge design representing our community. In order to create their designs, the students were given 12 different blank badge outlines which to choose.

Most Popular Articles in Arts: Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism; Free-standing cardboard sculpture; What makes a successful business person? Business people who are tops in ...; Take advantage of local advertising: TV, newspaper or magazines? If your ...; Tino Sehgal at the ICA; More »

A pizza party for the submitting students was the proffered reward. The winning artist would receive local recognition, in addition to the pride of seeing their creation all over town.

Students were given one week to work on their designs. They researched local history and considered the state motto, bird, flower and other identifying-state and local landmarks in an effort to create a unique logo representing their community. Most students created their designs in colored pencil.

Once the designs were complete, they were submitted to the local police department for selection of a winner. The police requested minor changes and the winning design was then "cleaned up" on the computer using Corel Draw.

The computer "cleanup" allowed us to produce a smooth, uniform gradient fill for the setting sun, in addition to sharp, clean letters for the text and a perfect "brushless" background. The images of the flower, bird and star were reproduced with smooth, flowing lines. The ease by which the computer allows the artist to resize, recolor and align images and text for that "perfect" visual effect is invaluable. Colors, text and images can be manipulated in seconds rather than hours so that multiple proofs with only slight variations can be evaluated.

This project created a great deal of excitement among my students and within the community. Every time a police car goes by, it makes a lasting visual impression of the importance of art in the public schools.

Cindy Carter is the Art Instructor at Caney Valley Junior High and High School in Caney, Kansas. You may view other works by her students on the Internet by visiting the student galleries at www.caney.com.

Badge of honor - Community connections - Cover Story - techniques of art instructors - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, Dec, 2001 by Cindy Carter

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Health

Most Popular Articles in Arts

Most Popular Publications in Arts