Designs

“It took awhile to come up with a design that Allissa and I felt symbolized 'Student Driver. For months we would sketch designs, and ideas, and then show them to each other in order to figure out what was good about them and what could be improved. “With 'Student Driver' I wanted the design to be creative. I wanted it to be artistic, but also I wanted it to symbolize that a student driver is generally more cautious at first than other drivers. “One day, I thought of the slogan "Slow and Steady Wins the Race." After that, my ideas seemed to improve and I began incorporating a snail into the student driver drawings. Eventually, after asking my friends and family how they picture a Student Driver sign, I realized that a road would need to be incorporated into the picture. All of them envisioned a magnet that displayed a road, a car, or a picture that let the viewer understand that the student was learning to drive. Thus, I made one snail fill in for a car. The first magnet depicted two snails, on one road, with the words 'Student Driver' written above.”– Anna Richards

We had our first edition magnets produced by a company in Houston, Texas with the design above. While we waited for the magnets to arrive, we spoke to first-year students at Sweet Briar College to receive as much feedback as possible. Many students expressed that our message would be clearer if we placed a car next to the snail instead of another snail. They advised us to add ‘drive slow’ or ‘caution’ to communicate the message more effectively. Professors and other students also suggested that we make the letters white and the background darker to create contrast. “Therefore, when Anna drew the second design, she incorporated all the feedback we had received. Eventually when we created the third design, we chose to include ‘Caution’ instead of ‘Drive Slow.’ We realized that we do not want other drivers to drive slow, instead we want to encourage them be cautious when driving near student drivers by taking into account that student drivers can stop or change lanes unexpectedly.”– Allissa Abdelwahed

After we finalized the design, we needed to go to a graphic design format to improve the formatting and make the image and words clearer. For that, we asked graphic designer Michael W. for help, as well as Professor Brunelle who is a graphic designer, and a professor at Sweet Briar. With their help, we learned about color, and transposing images into graphic design. Eventually, we managed to come up with design number three, that we have begun to sell through a mass market.”– Anna Richards

Final design. Click here to order for $7.99