Forty years from now, junior Kelcey Towell will remember this Earth Day, every day.

This is because the art major won the St. Louis Earth Day Festival Logo Design contest, and her logo will be featured on T-shirts, posters and advertisements. Towell’s logo was selected as one of six finalists out of more than 40 entries. Then, the public got to narrow it to one design.

The theme for the contest was “40 Years Later: Living Earth Day, Every Day,” in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Towell’s design, called “Tree with Roots,” depicts a tree with a peace sign in its leaves. The peace sign also doubles as the recycling symbol.

“The peace sign is also 40 years old,” Towell said. “I wanted to bring together two really cool ideas that are similar.”

Towell also said that the roots symbolize that sustainability isn’t “skin deep.”

“We have to start from somewhere to get our earth back into shape,” she said.

Towell learned about the competition through two of her professors, who usually notify their students of opportunities like this contest. She spent time doodling in her notebook to come to her final ideas, and then spent about six hours putting it together on a computer.

This is the first time Towell has won an award or contest outside of Saint Louis University. At SLU, she won the Provost Purchase Award, where the provost selects an artwork for his or her office.

Former Provost Joe Wiexlmann was the one to purchase Towell’s artwork. Now that Wiexlmann is no longer at the University, Towell isn’t sure what has happened to it.

Towell is no stranger to using her artistic skills outside of the University. This year, she participated in an event at the Missouri Botanical Garden called TOMS: Style Your Sole during which she painted TOMS shoes—an Internet-based brand in which the owners donate a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased—according to the requests of customers.

“I painted nine pairs in four hours,” she said. “And I took another nine home with me.”

Towell describes her artistic ability as an “innate talent that I’ve always relied on.”

“My mom always said that I was born with a pencil and a paintbrush in hand,” she said. “I’ve always been able to draw.”

Coming from a family of doctors and pharmacists, Towell said she’s going against the grain by pursuing a career in art.

“I actually started as a pre-dentistry student. There’s lots of visual elements in dentistry,” she said. “But I want to do something that I love, not just be able to do something.”

She isn’t fazed by the future.

“Anything that doesn’t grow was designed by someone,” she said. “I’m confident there’s a job out there for me.”
For more information or to purchase a shirt with Towell’s winning design, visit www.stlouisearthday.org.