Meet the Artist Day 2011

Each May West Bradford Elementary School art teacher Mary Fran Giunta invites local Chester County artists to participate in "Meet the Artist Day." By far this is one of the highlights of the year for us at CGC as we get a chance to show off our really "cool" computer design "magic." It is always an eyeopening experience for both the students at West Bradford, and for us. Focusing on symbols and logo design, we challenge the kids to guess famous national logos by showing them a very small portion of the mark. It is astonishing how quickly the students are able to recognize each and every logo from such a small amount of detail. Two horizontal grey dots? The kids call out "Wii!" A green and white vertical stripe? The kids know it's Rita's Water Ice. A mermaid's face? Starbucks coffee, followed by "My Mom drinks a LOT of that!!" The lesson here? Consistent branding leads to recognition... and kids say the darndest things!

Most would agree that our day to day work does not generate shouts of excitement. It is significantly exciting for us to see young people discover an area of design and art that we have chosen as our careers. One can sense when the students begin to make that special connection of how doing something you enjoy can actually be called work. At the end of the day Jen and I both feel that we have been blessed and that "It's A Wonderful Life" doing what we do.

Here's the game we play with them. See if you can guess the logo.