Penn students design new CDAG logo

Coming soon to a T-shirt near you: A blue swoosh to represent the Delaware River, a green swoosh for the shoreline, and few stylized skyscrapers and homes, tied in with a grid.

It’s the Central Delaware Advocacy Group’s new logo.

The artwork, which had its public debut at this year’s Shad Fest, was designed by a group of University of Pennsylvania design students, under the guidance of their professor, Laurie Churchman. (Churchman is the recipient of this year’s 2009 AIGA Philadelphia Fellow Award, which will be presented on May 28.)

Each year, Penn design students take on a project for a local non-profit. And this year they chose CDAG – the group of neighborhood representatives who advocate for the Civic Vision for the Central Delaware and its related Action Plan.

CDAG communications chairwoman Rene Goodwin passed out examples of the new logo to her fellow members at a recent meeting. Everyone loved it.

“It visually explains the purpose of the organization, which is to integrate all its varied uses into one glorious waterfront,” Goodwin said of the design.

In addition to the design, the students also provided CDAG with related services, such as examples of how their creation should appear in various uses. Goodwin said CDAG would have spent more than $15,000 had it hired a design firm for the same project. “That’s what we got for free,” she said.

The student designers: Chris Arasin, Abby Coven, Matthew Curtis, Anastasia Kouriatova, Gabrielle Matouk, Rashmi Pujari, Abigail Schwartz, Misha Yerlick and Ricardo Zapato.

CDAG has sent them all thank yous – printed on stationary with the logo they designed.

-Posted by Kellie Patrick Gates