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What's your sign?

Download Project (102kb PDF, includes samples)

Subject: Art and Writing
Age Level: 8 years old and up

Performance Standards Information
Conventions, Grammar, and Usage of the English Language E4a, E4b

Activity Goals

• Have children design a logo that will decorate and personalize their stationary.
• Encourage the children to think about symbolism and how logos reflect the characters and qualities of a person or product.

Skills children will learn from the activity

• Designing Logos
• Analyzing commercials and the media

Materials needed

• Computers
• Graphics programs: Adobe PhotoShop, PageMaker, Illustrator, KidPix
• Scanners
• Paper
• Markers
• Pencils
• Samples of Logos
• Color Printer

Prerequisites

• Children need to be able to use KidPix
• Children need to be able to follow instructions
• Having a varied selection of logos (such as the Nike swoosh or the BMW sign) will give a better explanation of what a logo is than if you try to explain it yourself.
• Encourage the children to keep it simple and to think about why they are choosing the design they are using.

• Model a completed logo that you have done yourself along with an explanation for it.

Procedure

1. Have the students gathered together in a circle and start passing out famous logos that have been collected. Then begin the discussion of which company they are for and what the children think the logos reflect.
2. Talk about how a logo is not necessarily a complicated design and explain why they are going to be designing a logo. Have the children draw a draft of their logo. Remind them that they should be able to reproduce it on a computer or that they can scan it in.
3. Then, have each child write up an explanation explaining the logo's significance.
4. Layout the logo on a page for their stationary and envelope then print.
5. The student demonstrates a basic understanding of the rules of the English language in written and oral work, and selects the structures and features of language appropriate to the purpose, audience, and context of the work. The student analyzes and subsequently revises work to clarify it or make it more effective in communicating the intended message or thought. The student's revisions should be made in light of the purposes, audiences, and contexts that apply to the work.

Strategies for revising include:

• Adding or deleting details
• Adding or deleting explanations
• Clarifying difficult passages
• Rearranging words, sentences, and paragraphs to improve or clarify meaning
• Sharpening the focus
• Reconsidering the organizational structure.

Extension Activities

• The logos and their explanations would make an excellent newsletter
• The activity could be taken a step further and the children's logos could be printed onto iron-on sheets to create their own designer t-shirts. Centers and sports teams could hold contests or work together to come up with designs for center or team jerseys.