The PCC Board of Directors long realized the need for the club to better market itself. Part of the basic marketing of any organization involves establishing a brand identity and that requires a logo.

In November of 2001, our club's previous Webmaster, Rick Curtis, proposed the idea of holding a contest open to Purdue students to design the club's logo. The club's Board of Directors approved offering a $50 award, letter of recommendation, and 1-year club membership to the creator of the winning logo.

Rick emailed Gary Bertoline, Professor in the Department of Computer Graphics Technology at Purdue, requesting student assistance. Professor Bertoline forwarded the club's request to CGT students and recent alumni. Immediately, the students responded.

The club defined basic requirements for its logo. The logo should visually convey a 'best of both worlds' (Chicago and Purdue) theme. It should look good in color or black and white. Students were told that the logo would be used to promote the club and would appear on the club website, on club stationary, on T-shirts, banners, and club business cards.

A voting application was created and placed on www.puchicago.org that allowed club members to vote for their favorite logo. Over 25 logos were featured. Club members overwhelmingly chose a logo submitted by a student named Brian Rice. Brian's professional-quality design nicely represented the 'best of both worlds' concept by showing a shadow of the campus bell tower cast on the side of Chicago's Sears Tower. Brian received the club's prize package and the gratitude of our entire club.