In honor of their new dealership, Southwest Kia Austin held a T-shirt design contest for students in the surrounding area to create a new design logo, which would be printed onto hundreds of shirts and given out at their grand opening event, where the design would be displayed. The winner would also receive a $1,000 scholarship. After a class assignment given to advanced graphic design students by engineering teacher Mr. Fulton, one of our very own, Reid Harrison, ‘18 created the winning logo.

“We weren’t really given a whole lot to go off of: just that it needed to include a Southwest Kia logo and something about Austin’s weirdness or uniqueness, and I think I instantly thought of the skyline of Austin because there are some iconic buildings,” Harrison said.

Every student was given the assignment to do, but it was only those who submitted their composition before the deadline who were eligible for the contest. In two short class periods, Harrison created the design among his fellow peers.  He wanted to do something out of the ordinary to symbolize the uniqueness of the city, so he began designing the outline of some of the most iconic buildings in the Austin skyline. Then, he decided to put the buildings behind the letters, while some were actually placed to be apart of the letter, such as the capital building to make up the letter A in Kia. The design also includes the Congress Bridge under the letters, with bats flying overhead, to show the well-known tourist-attraction in Austin.

“I don’t remember how long after I submitted it, but I just found out [that I won] when Mr. Fulton called me up and said,’Hey, guess what? You won the Kia contest!’” Harrison explained.

The scholarship was awarded to Harrison at the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony during the grand opening event on March 22 at the new Round Rock dealership.