BY JESS LYNK
When first-year Jordan Lundquist was in elementary school, he would spend his free time designing simple slide shows in PowerPoint. Then, in sixth grade, he got Photoshop.
“I have just been teaching myself how to do it ever since,” Lundquist said.
Although Lundquist has this background in design, he wasn’t going to apply to design the 2016 Relays logo until his friend, junior Tom Scearce, suggested it.
“I knew that Jordan was going to make a difference on campus right when I met him,” Scearce said. “That, combined with his talent and passion for graphic design, I knew was going to make him a great contender for the position.”
So, Lundquist decided to apply.
“I was definitely nervous about it because I am always self-critical about my work,” Lundquist said. “I just kind of went for it and went into the interview. I thought of it as, ‘If I get this, it will be so cool and such an amazing opportunity, but if I don’t, at least I am giving it a shot.’”
Each year, the Relays planning committee has a logo competition to get a Drake student involved with designing the logo, as opposed to hiring an outside company to do so.
“I think (having a student design the logo) brings together the Drake community because someone on our campus is actually designing the face of Relays,” said Jessica DiDominick, one of the Relays co-chairs.
Applying for the position paid off, as Lunquist was chosen as the 2016 Relays designer by DiDominick and Hannah Chesley, the other Relays co-chair.
“He showed us a lot of designs that he has made from past events from his high school that we were really impressed by,” DiDominick said.
The entire process began in November, when Chesley and DiDominick began conducting interviews for those who applied.
They narrowed it down to three contenders who all were told the secret theme of Relays after signing a confidentiality contract.
Then the designers came up with four designs over winter break.
“A couple of things we thought about when we got designs is what it would look like on the street and what it would look like on apparel,” Chesley said. “We wanted to make sure it was a design that could be transferred to a lot of different things and that really encompassed the theme.”
After that, they picked the winner: Lundquist.
From there, the three of them collaborated in order to create the official logo.
“It is cool to see what my original idea was and how it looks now,” Lundquist said. “It definitely looks a lot more polished and a lot better. I see why they picked that one out of my ideas because they saw the potential in me, even when I didn’t.”
Chesley and DiDominick saw this potential in Lundquist from the beginning.
“From his first initial interview, we were both completely surprised by his work for a first-year, and it was really impressive,” Chesley said.
In fact, Lundquist was the first interview they conducted.
“We had no idea what to expect, but he was just great,” DiDominick said.
In the end, taking the leap that Scearce recommended helped make Lundquist’s design the icon of Drake Relays 2016.
“Just that simple action and applying for it, now it will get to be all around Drake and everybody will get to see it. It is kind of a really cool learning experience,” Lunquist said. “It is a great way to get involved right away at Drake and make an impact.”
