Graduation Year:
2017
Penn State Major:
Graphic Design
THON Logo Design (Year/Theme):
2016 / Believe Beyond Boundaries
Bio
Saige graduated from the graphic design program in 2017. After that, she moved to Denver, Colorado and co-founded a design firm, Golden Creative, with fellow Penn State Graduate, Maddy Beard. She now freelances and works as Marketing Coordinator at Garman Builders in Lancaster, PA.
How has designing a THON logo impacted you after graduation from Penn State?
Designing a THON Logo made me feel closer to Penn State as a university, going beyond just my individual experience. Even though I grew up in State College and had connections from being there, and my parents were professors, I was able to feel a deeper connection because I did something that made me more attached to the university. Being able to see people wear a shirt with my logo on it and talk about their THON experiences always reminds me of that community.
What was your inspiration for your THON logo design?
The THON logos I remember before 2016 all had a similar look and feel to them, which makes sense. The logos are meant to appeal to children, and so they have a lot of representations of children, or another cartoon-esque character. However, seeing these logos my whole life growing up in State College, I wanted to make it more abstract, and not focus on a specific character. While I don’t think the logo is unique in the concept it’s portraying, it showed how THON was able to go “beyond boundaries” by breaking from what the classic logos looked like.
What is your favorite THON memory?
Before 2016, I had never attended a single THON. While I knew what it was, I didn’t fully understand the impact that it has on children’s lives. I didn’t fully grasp how cool it was to design the logo until someone from my own high school reached out and told me that she was a THON child. The way she remembered each THON was the logo, and that was the first moment when I realized what an impact I left on the organization and how much it really helps every THON child.