Smoky Hill Education Service Center celebrated its 30-year anniversary on Wednesday with the reveal of a new logo, designed to better reflect SHESC’s name and mission.
Chris Moddelmog, SHESC Executive Director, said that reaching the 30-year milestone presented a perfect opportunity to reconsider and modernize SHESC’s brand, while still honoring and connecting to the previous logo design.
“The compass rose-style star at the center of our previous logo is a powerful symbol of how we provide direction to educators, as well as helping to guide and inspire them,” Moddelmog said. “We didn’t want to just discard that tradition, but we also wanted to enhance and build upon that foundation.”
Moddelmog explained that the new logo adds a stylized hill as its central symbol, providing a stronger connection to the “Smoky Hill” in the service center’s name and suggesting the historical connection between mountain peaks and striving for greater heights of learning.
Other symbolism in the new logo includes:
· Smoky Hills (White Line): Represents the regional geography of the Smoky Hills and the more than 50 school districts SHESC serves across 25 counties.
· Smoky Hill River (Blue Swoop): As the river helps sustain the land it runs through, SHESC provides critical assistance for area education.
· Pencil: Where the blue and white lines intersect on the abstract hill, it suggests the point of a sharpened pencil – a reminder of SHESC’s educational mission.
· Arrow: Where the blue swoop touches two rays of the compass rose star, it forms an arrow pointing upward and onward. Likewise, SHESC serves as a guide to continual improvement and advancement.
Adam Pracht, SHESC Marketing Coordinator, said he was excited that SHESC was also able to support area students with the new logo project. SHESC hired Etch - a student-run marketing and graphic design firm connected with McPherson College - to create the new symbol.
“The college students at Etch provided us with a beautiful logo that is packed with meaning in just a few simple lines,” Pracht said. “By going with Etch, we were able to support innovative education in Central Kansas!”
The new logo was rolled out immediately across SHESC’s website, social media, and most online and printed marketing materials. It will begin to appear across more branded materials through
July and August. During the next one to two years, people can expect to see the new logo on locations such as signage, name tags, event displays, and the like.
“Some items will take time to change, but we will get there,” Pracht said. “We’re really looking forward to introducing this modern new look across everywhere our name and brand appears!”