Did you know I’m a graphic designer? Not many people do. If you’ve explored my site in depth, then you may have stumbled across my design services page, but until now I haven’t talked about it much. I want that to change.
This is the logo I designed for my town.
Apex, North Carolina was named #1 in Money Magazine’s “Best Places to Live” in 2015. When that happened, our town council decided they needed a new logo. In an effort to involve the community and save money, they held a contest.
I don’t usually enter contests
I almost didn’t enter this one. Contests don’t sit too well with me because if you don’t win, you did a lot of work for nothing. In the end, I decided to try anyway. I live here, and I didn’t think I could go happily about my days knowing I didn’t even try.
So I bit the bullet and spent the next few days working on my design ideas. I submitted two designs to the contest.
Neither one made the cut
I was bummed, but I figured I’d learned my lesson (once again) about contests and that was that. But then we had an election and a new mayor was voted in. The new mayor didn’t like the previous choices and asked each town council member to select their favorite design and bring it to a meeting.
They chose both of mine
The council settled on one of my designs, but they had a long list of changes to make to it. It took a long time and several revisions before we got to the design you see above. They approved the final design several weeks ago. You can now see it on their website and once the humidity dies down in the fall, it will be up on the water towers as well. As far as I know, it will be used on all the town stationary, business cards, and embroidery.
I’m ecstatic about my design
I’m honored they chose my design. I got to design the logo for the town I live in! It just doesn’t get better than that. Yes, I’m sentimental and nostalgic and all that, but this is my town and I’m ridiculously happy to have a piece of me stamped on it.
If you’re looking for a designer or have a project for me, let’s talk. I work on many types of projects and I’d love to work with you. Email me at reviewkidsbooks@gmail.com.
8 COMMENTS
Kate @ Mom's Radius
8 years agoThat’s awesome! Congrats. And it’s such a beautiful logo too. So simple but really fun too. I love it.
Dena at Batch of Books
8 years ago AUTHORThank you!
Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight
8 years agoWhat a beautiful logo! And how exciting that it actually gets to be the logo for your town and put on the website and water towers and everything 😀 You’ve definitely found a way to leave your mark on the town!
Dena at Batch of Books
8 years ago AUTHORThanks! I’m so happy about the way it turned out.
Lance Olive
8 years agoThe problem that we faced is that none of the submissions really told the whole story that we wanted our logo to tell. I knew that if I got the council members to pick a couple of favorites, we could extract the total story, pick the one that was closest, incorporate the missing elements and have something great.
I can’t wait to see this logo on our three water towers (which have been sporting a fresh coat of base layer paint for a full year)!
Thank you, Dena! Let me know when I can buy you a coffee! Or frozen chai tea smoothie!
Dena at Batch of Books
8 years ago AUTHORThanks Lance! I love the way the design turned out. It’s a great representation of Apex and everything I love about living here. I can’t wait to see it on the water towers. I’ve been looking at them with their new coat of base paint and trying to envision it up there.
Thanks for stopping by my website. I’d be happy to take you up on your offer any time!
Steve Fowler
7 years agoI just stumbled across your page. I Just wanted to say the logo looks great. Clean & fresh and it tells you a story about where we live just by looking at it. Fantastic job!
Dena at Batch of Books
7 years ago AUTHORThanks so much Steve! I get a little thrill every time I drive past one of the water towers and see it up there. Don’t you just love Apex? It’s the best!