Lehigh’s Fud Truk rolled out to its regular stop next to the STEPS lawn, but instead of the yellow hamburger shape made out of interlocking circular lines and the funky typeset, it appeared with an Asa Packer cartoon and triangular shapes in different colors.
In honor of Lehigh’s sesquicentennial year, the Fusion Student Design Agency was given an opportunity by Sodexo to redesign the Fud Truk logo. The Fusion team launched the design Sept. 29 after careful selection, planning and communication with Sodexo.
Monica Shell, ‘16, a member of the Fusion agency, had the winning design that incorporated bright, colorful vector shapes and an anime-style cartoon of Asa Packer.
“When my design was chosen, I just changed a couple of things here and there,” Shell said.
Fusion is an on-campus group of student designers, creatives and innovators who are hand-picked for the opportunity to join a collaborative group of students all interested in graphic design and wanting professional design experience. The group is commonly contacted by different groups in need of fliers, logos and a variety of promotional material.
“When we get a request in from someone, our professor figures out if it is something we can feasibly do, due to time constraints and budgets,” said Katelyn Turner, ‘16, a member of Fusion.
But the team has taken on several different projects, providing creative, effective and engaging design solutions for all.
The award-winning agency was started in 2008 under the advisory of Marilyn Jones, associate professor of design. The group designs fliers and a variety of content for on-campus groups including the theater department, Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Community Service Office and several others. The group has also collaborated with computer science students to develop graphics for a game app that was released during Lehigh-Lafayette week last year.
The group is currently hired by a non-profit organization called the Arctic Institute, located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is working on rebranding and expanding to different promotional materials.
When Sodexo reached out to the group about the opportunity to rebrand the Fud Truk design for the sesquicentennial, the group couldn’t wait to kick start the project.
“This one was something we were really excited about,” Turner said.
Sodexo wanted to get involved in the celebration of the sesquicentennial while still getting student interaction.
“We wanted to be able to support Lehigh, and obviously the 150th anniversary is huge,” said Amy Pulcini, the marketing coordinator for dining services. “This is a perfect opportunity and especially having the students help, it just makes it more Lehigh.”
Sodexo gave students a lot of freedom on creating the design.
“They didn’t really have a lot of criteria, they just wanted it to be fun, exciting, and have Asa Packer on it,” Turner said.
David Joseph, the executive director of student auxiliary services, set Sodexo up with Fusion. Students were asked to break into a smaller groups responsible for submitting a design to be chosen by a team of judges, including Pulcini, who works closely with branding Sodexo and making it appealing to students.
After the design was chosen, the rest was left to Fast Signs, a partner of Sodexo, who resized the image and placed the new design on the Fud Truk.
In the future the group hopes to continue its partnership with Sodexo and redesign the truck again over the summer, as well as redesign other on-campus concession stands. Sodexo also hopes to continue its student engagement with its on-campus student advisory board.
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