Sign Design

When Sandra Oseguera saw a photo of her work, “wow, that’s mine?” she said.

The answer is yes.

Sandra, a senior in the Commercial Art program, worked on a project last spring assigned by her teacher Damian Powers.

Students were instructed to design a new exterior sign for the Southern Westchester BOCES Center for Special Services Rye Lake campus located in White Plains.

It was not until the start of the new school year that Sandra learned her design had been selected and the sign had been installed outside the center’s campus.

“We always look for opportunities to partner, across centers when possible, so this seemed like a potential partnership where the work of SWBOCES students could be showcased,” said Director of the Center for Special Services Andrea Byrne. She was aware of other partnerships that the Center of Special Services St. Matthew’s location had done with Mr. Powers’ students and this seemed like another opportunity to work together.

“We had plans to replace the older signage on the Rye Lake Campus to create a more welcoming entry to the campus which houses two of our programs and our business and central offices,” she said. The Center initially reached out to a vendor to price the project.

After providing information to students about what they had in mind, students presented them with three options to choose from.

“The students used the input provided and created designs that were easy to read, appealing to the eye, and in the “spirit” of BOCES given the color palette of the sign,” Ms. Byrne said.

Sandra recalled working on the project last spring, saying that she first began to play with the background color before moving on to the style and color of the font. In the end, she chose a blue background with white lettering. The sign contains the SWBOCES logo and what services are offered at this site.

“I wondered what color scheme would stand out,” Sandra said. “Then I played with the words and the SWBOCES logo.”

She worked through several versions and took some advice from her teacher to heart when she rearranged the lettering so not one part of the message would distract from other details.

“I am actually surprised,” Sandra said. “I didn’t think mine would get chosen.”

When Sandra first came to the Commercial Art class she was not aware of the many areas which incorporated graphic design work. It really opened her eyes to the possibilities, she said. One such area was logos, something new for her.

The New Rochelle High School student said she hopes to go into animation.

“It has helped me with my creativity and confidence,” she said of the class. “It allows me to learn new things on a different level.”

“This collaboration took place exclusively through online communication and was an excellent example of how we have all adapted to our current collaboration methods,” said Ms. Byrne. “We were impressed with the class and the teacher as they were responsive and provided three designs from which to choose. We hope that there are additional opportunities for collaboration as we all value having students see the products of their learning and production come to fruition in a practical way, and we are looking forward to future projects.”