USM Students Logo Design Focuses on Pathways, Experiences

Cody Bass, a graphic design student at The University of Southern Mississippi, has created an interesting, new logo for Rise Creative the student graphic design agency on the Hattiesburg campus that will be used in conjunction with the University's Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).

“Designed by Cody Bass, the mark for ‘Eagles Engaged' is also symbolic of the goals of the QEP,” said Dr. Julie Howdeshell, director of Quality Enhancement at Southern Miss. “The center element is the light bulb, illustrating ideas and learning. The gear in the light bulb is representative of action and movement.”

The design, capturing the elements of the Southern Miss black and gold, simplifies subtle concepts for an edgy and sleek design. 

"After a lot of sketches and revisions I came to the idea of using a lightbulb as the main graphic in the logo,” said Bass, a senior from Flowood, Miss. “I think the simple shapes make the logo unique because they are easy to understand, but complex in their overall meaning.”

The design will be used as the primary symbol for “Eagles Engaged,” which is the name for the new Quality Enhancement Plan at Southern Miss. 

“USM's Quality Enhancement Plan is focused on enhancing student learning in gateway and pathway experiences,” Howdeshell said. "Given the focus of Eagles Engaged, the QEP Research and Design Team's Public Relations Committee partnered with the Department of Art and Design's student agency, Rise Creative, for the development of USM's QEP mark.”

According to Bass, his design did not take him long to develop. After a plethora of sketches and drawings, he set upon the design to submit for the new QEP mark. 

“The entire process took about a month to complete with all of the sketches, different iterations, and revisions that were done to the mark,” Bass said. 

Several elements encapsulate the logo. Two E's face each other, with a light bulb placed right between the two. For nice effect, the light bulb has a gear placed right in the center of it. 

“I chose to illustrate a lightbulb to represent thoughts or good ideas with a gear inside to symbolize those ideas going into motion and being pursued,” said Bass.

Bass was not alone in his cutting-edge design for the Rise Creative, as he shared praise for his partner, John Ragland. 

“Only myself and another designer, John Ragland, were assigned to work on this project.” Bass said. “John had a lot of well-developed ideas for the logo that played on the double ‘E's' in Eagles Engaged and some really cool logos with the initials ‘QEP.' ” 

To learn more about Rise Creative, visit: http://www.risecreative.co/