At the beginning of this month, we launched a logo competition for our MKDA [Media, Kunst, Design, Architectuur] Bachelor program. We thought that now that the first students of this still fairly new program graduate, it is about time to come up with a logo, and we asked our students to develop ideas themselves. The only request was that it should include the letters MKDA somehow. It was great to see that students picked up on this, and came up with eight different designs (and some further variations, even):

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While some tried to come up with icons representing the different tracks, others worked graphically with the combination of letters. Again others tried to find one common icon for the whole program. Last Tuesday, we had a staff meeting, which also served as a jury to establish the winner. Thus, members of the jury where:

Freek Schmidt, Tim Verlaan, Martijn van Beek, Marjan Groot, Katja Kwastek, Sebastian Scholz, Daantje Meeuwissen, Rieta Bergsma, Jos ten Berge, Minke Walda, Ginette Verstraete, Connie Veugen, and Vera Weijers.

We had a good and intense discussion about the submissions, and it was definitely a tough call. But in the end most votes went to the design of Jeannette Koenis, MKDA student with specialisation Media. Our congratulations.

For many, one important reason was that it manages to symbolize all tracks within one symbol, wich can be read as screen, frame or minimal art object, floor-plan or simplified architecture, and graphic design. While we appeciated that some suggestions tried to come up with icons for the individual tracks, these where sometimes a little stereotype (painting = art / classicist building = architecture, etc.). Generally, many of us liked the idea of a logo which manages to provide one icon for all tracks, symbolizing that MKDA is more than a combination of four disciplines/genres, but that it is the interrelations, respective influences, knowledge generated through comparison, etc. which makes the combination of Media, Art, Design, and Architecture within one program so interesting and timely.
The new logo will make its debut on the welcome bags for the new first year students this fall.