Shauna Lair, a senior at Francis Marion University, visited Lake Friday morning to accept monetary awards and recognition for entering the winning design that will be the logo for ArtFields; the inaugural arts extravaganza to be held in Lake City April 19 through 28, 2013.
The Lake City Partnership Council reached out to four local colleges and offered their art students the opportunity to design the logo for the artist-based event that includes $100,000 in prize money and which the council hopes will draw about 20,000 artists and tourists to Lake City over the course of its events.
Lair, a visual arts major who graduates May 5, received a $2,500 prize for her design and the knowledge that it will be used for the regional event. Lair said that in coming up with her design she didn’t want it to be a literal translation of the agricultural heritage but that she did want “to refer to it and pay an homage to it.”
Lair’s design incorporates a dandelion seed above two stacked elements: the event’s name andLake City,S.C.
“What struck me was, when I looked at it again, was a kind of ‘field of dreams’ rather idea” said Lair. She said that made her think of dandelions. “The seeds go everywhere and it’s kind of the idea that your dreams go everywhere,” said Lair. “It just became a huge concept that just kept going and going and going,” she said.
Karen Fowler, LCPD, said the selection process that deemed Lair’s work the winning submission was a unanimous decision by a group of five judges. More than 30 students from FMU, entered their work. “There were great submissions,” said Fowler, but to decide a winner the process began, not by choosing favorites, she explained, but by elimination. The entries were laid out on a large conference table and the judges were given sticky notes to place on their least favorites; three notes on an entry and it was removed until the final three.
Once down to three, Fowler said the judges were trying to figure out the winner when they realized that Lair’s work was the only submission without a single note.
“Before our eyes, it just sort of blossomed,” said Fowler. “It was just so complete,” she said.
Gregory Fry, associate professor of visual arts at FMU and Lair’s professor, said that she “There’s always some concern at the beginning,” when designing a project, but that “she nailed it. She just did an excellent job.”
Fry also accepted a $2,500 check from the council on behalf of the visual arts program at the school.
“It will be integrated back into the program so we can get more students like Shauna,” he said. Fry said the funds could be used for students to enter more competitions or for possible field trips.
This story originally appeared on SCNow.com and was written by Donna Tracy.
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