The greatest business idea will struggle to find success without good marketing and design. The converse is also true; no amount of pretty packaging will make a bad product better. Over the last eight years, the IU East Business and Economic Research Center (BERC) has offered an incredible product – the East-Central Indiana Business Survey. This survey draws data from experienced local businesses – over 100 of them – in Wayne, Fayette, Franklin, Henry, Randolph, Rush, and Union counties. From this data, the local confidence in business prospects is measured, looking at factors like workforce size, capital investment, and profitability in addition to optimism or pessimism in the future. This data in turn improves the community’s understanding of the local business environment.
A great asset like this needs great design to facilitate getting people to look at and read it. Over the last few years, BERC has offered a design contest to current IU East students to create an eye-catching front and back cover for the survey report (you can see the 2022 and 2021 reports and their covers here). It’s a great opportunity to build a professional graphic design portfolio and help get an important business tool into the hands of more people.
For any interested student graphic designers, all of the requirements for the contest can be found on the BERC website here. Fill out the submission form and enter your work by Sunday, March 17th! Any questions can be directed to Dr. Oi Lin Cheung, by phone at (765) 973-8497 or by email at berc@iue.edu.
The library has many resources to help budding graphic designers entering the contest, as well – titles like Graphic Design Rules: 365 Essential Design Dos and Don’ts by Tony Seddon, Layout Workbook: Revised and Updated: A Real-world Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design by Dennis Puhalla, The New Graphic Design School: A Foundation Course in Principles and Practice by David Dabner, The Typography Workbook or Graphic Designer’s Essential Reference: Visual Elements, Techniques, and Layout Strategies for Busy Designers, both by Timothy Samara, may be useful.
Good luck to all participants!
