A University of Wisconsin-Stout student’s logo design is helping brand the Health Dunn Right coalition.
Junior graphic design and interactive media major Megan Hultgren created the logo for the coalition, which includes the university, Mayo Clinic Health Systems, Dunn County Health Department and the Community Foundation of Dunn County.
Health Dunn Right is also supported by the Initiative for the Creation of the UW-Stout Center for the Study and Promotion of Health and Wellbeing.
Cristy Linse, director of the initiative, contacted the student AIGA club — American Institute of Graphic Arts — about creating a logo. Hultgren, of Forest Lake, Minn., is part of the club and offered to help.
Using multiple sketches, Linse and the Health Dunn Right steering committee designed the logo, which features the words “Health Dunn Right” with darker and lighter green leaves above it.
“They really wanted a rural Wisconsin feel about it and to prioritize all types of health,” Hultgren said. “I think a lot of people think of nature and being outside as healthy. The word health is colored brown to represent the soil and the leaves growing out of that.”
Hultgren said she initially came up with more than 20 sketches and had a coalition committee narrow down what it liked.
Linse is impressed with Hultgren’s work. “She did everything we had hoped and then some. The logo implies growth and the history of the community. We wanted to make sure health is emphasized.”
The idea for a health center at UW-Stout started about three years ago with Bob Salt, dean of the College of Education, Hospitality, Health and Human Sciences. The center could provide programs, conferences, workshops and other events for those in the health and wellness fields to help continue their learning. Yearly conferences could help the public learn more about health care options, including affordability and availability.
Faculty and students would have the opportunity to conduct research through the center and work with the public while giving back to the community. An online giving page has been created to help establish the center, which is expected to be self-sustaining through grants and/or private funding.
A community meeting is planned from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, May 20, in room 60 of the Dunn County Community Services Building, 3001 U.S. 12, Menomonie, to help create a structure for the Health Dunn Right coalition.
That structure will be expanded at a community symposium from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16, where there will be a celebration of the coalition. The 2019 Dunn County Health Needs Assessment survey will be revealed to help create a County Health Improvement Plan, Linse said.
Factors that impact mental and emotional health needs include availability and access to high-quality education, nutritious food, decent and safe housing, affordable and reliable public transportation, culturally sensitive health care providers, health insurance, and clean water and air, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Geographic location also can impact health disparities.
For Hultgren, creating the logo and working with the coalition was enjoyable. Many projects students work on are only seen by professors and classmates, she noted.
“It’s cool to see a project come to life,” Hultgren said. “It’s fun having other people see something I worked on. It was a really good experience. In the future, I am going to be working with clients and making sure they are satisfied and happy how it represents them and their brand.”
Hultgren chose graphic design because she wants to work in a creative environment. “To help ideas come to life is really my goal,” she said. “A logo or wordmark can tell a story. It seems like something so minor, but you see a logo and you know exactly what the business or group is about, or you can get a good idea. It’s the face of the brand.”
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Photos
Health Dunn Right coalition logo.
Cristy Linse
