Source: IU Center for Rural Engagement
Through a partnership with the IU Center for Rural Engagement, Greene County explores new visual brand marks to promote tourism.
With assistance from the newly implemented innkeeper’s tax, the Greene County Economic Development Corporation (GCEDC) and the Greene County Tourism Advisory Board (GCTAB) is strategizing its promotion of the county’s many tourist attractions in order to bring in more revenue to Greene County.
They turned to Jenny El-Shamy, senior lecturer in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, and the 13 students participating in her fall 2019 BFA graphic design course to bring a new visual style to the county. Students in the course split into teams and began brainstorming and creating several design variations of Greene County logos.
Brianne Jerrels, executive director of GCEDC, provided feedback and suggestions to the students throughout the semester. Jerrels plans to take the final products to stakeholders across the county to build excitement for the new look. The students’ designs could be brought to life in many forms—turned into patches, stamps, maps, stickers and more—available and seen in several locations.
"What the community partners and I were most impressed by was the way they listened, identified the problems to solve, conducted thorough research, and created designs that captured the essence of Greene County." –Jenny El-Shamy, IU School of Art, Architecture + Design
“This is an exceptionally talented group of young designers who created work on par with any professional agency,” said El-Shamy. “What the community partners and I were most impressed by was the way they listened, identified the problems to solve, conducted thorough research, and created designs that captured the essence of Greene County. Their level of personal investment, hard work, and dedication resulted in expert design solutions and effective branding systems."
The students’ designs are inspired by five tourism resources in Greene County, including Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area, Yoho General Store, the Shawnee Theater, Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum, and the Tulip Trestle.
The IU Center for Rural Engagement improves the lives of Hoosiers through collaborative initiatives that discover and deploy scalable and flexible solutions to common challenges facing rural communities. Working in full-spectrum community innovation through research, community-engaged teaching and student service, the center builds vision, harnesses assets and cultivates sustainable leadership structures within the communities with which it engages to ensure long-term success.