WW student’s idea wins national design project

Lizzie Chastain didn’t really expect to go to the national competition with her graphic design project. She placed fourth at the state Business Professionals of America competition last year and thought that was pretty much it. Only the top three go on to the national competition. Then one of the top three competitors dropped out, sending the then-eighth grader to the national competition, where she placed third, beating out the two other students from Indiana who had placed higher than her at the state competition.

“I felt confident in my design, but I didn’t know I’d get that far,” she said.

Her tagline, “Capitalize Your Future,” along with her design, were sent to a professional graphic design company, which reworked her design and it will be made into pins for students to keep or trade at the national convention in Washington DC this coming spring.

It’s certainly something to be proud of, especially as she’s never taken a graphic design class, said BPA Advisor Brian Wolfe.

“Lizzie has been in the graphic design promotion event for multiple years now,” he said. “Over the past three years, she has realized what BPA judges are looking for with promoting next year’s National Leadership Conference via graphic design. Her theme and design were on point and reflective of the location. As she presented her graphic design more, she became increasingly confident in her explanation of the design process. This is evident by how well she performed at Nationals.”

Chastain had some critiques of the professional design.

“I didn’t like that they didn’t put the whole Capitol on there, just half of it,” she said. “I think they should have had the whole thing on there.”

Her design was also circular and the professional one is a rectangle.

“So I don’t know how the pins will look,” she said. Still, seeing her concept made into a wearable piece of art is something she’s looking forward to.

“It’s going to be kind of cool,” she said. “It’s going to be a design from me, but most people won’t know that.”