Thanks to PENCIL, Brooklyn School Has a Logo

Thanks to fourth-grader Alina Mishchenko, PS 197 in Brooklyn has a new logo, “Put Your Hands Together and Explore.” Her logo was part of a project launched at the school by Siegelgale, a strategic branding and new-media consulting firm, that teamed up with the school’s fourth graders when Chairman and CEO Alan Siegel, visited as part of PENCIL’s “Principal for a Day” program.

Mishchenko and her classmates learned about branding and design through a presentation featuring icons they encounter every day. They then were asked to sketch logos and write taglines for their school, from which Siegelgale chose a winning design to develop the school’s final logo and tagline. Angelica Rivera and Shenika McLean were other finalists in the designs.

“Designing an identity for the school unlocked the students’ creativity and showed them that you can make a living at doing something you love,” says Kenneth Cooke, Chief Creative Officer at Siegelgale, who directed the contest.

The school now has an 80-pound brass plaque engraved with the logo adorning the front entrance. Siegelgale also designed stationery, business cards and T-shirts featuring the identity.

Siegelgale’s involvement in the school is the kind of result that PENCIL, a non-profit organization that works to involve the private sector in New York City public schools, is looking for in its Principal for a Day program: lasting relationships between businesses and schools.

“This has been an incredible learning experience for all the students,” said Lucille Triconi, the teacher who hosted the program. “Siegelgale’s team truly inspired our students, and the resulting logo is a tangible symbol of our school spirit and pride.” #

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