This year, the newspaper changed the name of its annual Progress edition — which examines mainly economic change in our region — to Pride of the Plains and wanted a logo for the tabloid publication. My boss challenged my two co-workers and I to submit our designs, and the management team chose my design.

I like the text block style, but wanted to incorporate a graphic element that evokes the Great Plains and Kansas, so of course, wheat came to mind. The first wheat stalk I used, however, everyone thought looked like a feather, so I found one less realistic and more symbolic. Originally, I did not include the outline of the state, but the publisher liked the idea. It keeps the text from being in a true block, but does give even more of a feel of Kansas.

Pride of the Plains includes many stories of local businesses and community endeavors in 10 northwest Kansas counties, so they also wanted versions of the logo to use with each county’s section in the publication. The tabloid published in the Sunday, March 20, edition of The Hays Daily News.