Local Artists: Get Your Ideas Down On Paper For Ike

Calling all artists. The Yakima School District needs your talent. They're looking for a new athletic logo. Check out all the details in a news release from the district below.

"For the past 15 years, the school has utilized the emblem also used by the New England Patriots, an NFL football team. Permissions have since changed and the Cadets, along with other schools nationwide utilizing NFL emblems, must phase out use.  That means that starting this school year, no new uniforms or gear can be ordered utilizing the emblem. This posed a problem for varsity football coach Gary Jimenez, who needed to order new helmets for the IKE football program this year. Coach Jimenez immediately worked with other IKE coaches as well as the Principal, IKE Athletic Director and District Athletic Director to begin the process to seek new sports branding for all Eisenhower sports before other programs run in to the same problem.  For this year’s helmets, a design of red, white and blue stars and chevrons was chosen and applied as a temporary sticker to the helmets.

The iconic Cadet logo, established with the school in 1958 and symbolized as a military cadet with a 1950s style soldier/general with a shield and 5 stars will remain a symbol of Eisenhower, appearing in the hallway, on some fan gear and of course on all commencement announcements, award certificates, etc.

Now, the creative process to find new IKE sports branding will begin.  According to Yakima School District Operating Procedure #4226, the IKE student body will make the final recommendation to the superintendent for new athletic branding.  But the process will start with a request for art proposals from the Eisenhower family – current students, parents, staff as well as alumni and supporters. The winner will have a plaque with their name and their art hanging in Eisenhower hallways for years to come.

Artists are asked to submit their ideas for the new IKE athletic branding to yakimaschools.org/IKEsportsbranding no later than December 17, 2015.  The files are to be 10 MB or smaller (larger files will be requested of the winner) and more specifics on file submission technicalities are listed on the website. In addition, artists are asked to use the school colors of red, white and blue and if they choose to add stars to their idea, they should comply with IKE tradition of using either one star or five stars.

A committee of reviewers consisting of current students, staff, community members and alumni including retired NFL football great, Kurt Schulz and retired MLB 3^rd baseman Dave Edler, as well as Regan Leahy, Gary Patrick, Taylor Elmo, and Drew Harris will review all submissions and narrow them down to five by the end of January 2016.

In February, the current Eisenhower student body will vote on the five and narrow them down to three giving their first, second and third choices to the Superintendent for final approval.

March 15 is currently slated as the announcement date for the new IKE athletic branding.  Watch IKE and YSD’s websites, Facebook and Twitter accounts to stay updated on the process."