Computer Sciences 60th Anniversary Project
In the fall of 2024, I was approached by a member of the UW Madison Computer Sciences staff to potentially work in collaboration to produce a series of stickers to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UW Madison Computer Sciences program.
The goal of these stickers were to acknowledge and celebrate different notable moments throughout the history of the program.
Over 2,000 stickers were printed and distributed for free to students in the Computer Science building on campus.
Here's a closer look at each design:
- CS Student Badger : For this piece, I originally started with a badger sitting at an older, more analog computer. After chatting with Rachel Robey- my contact throughout this process, we agreed that switching to a more modern laptop would be more relatable for students, and would act as more of a reflection of their experience as a Computer Sciences student. While I still love the look of older computers, I'm glad we ended up with a laptop here. There's plenty of computer nostalgia in the other designs in this series, and the laptop adds some variety to the collection.
(Photo via Wikipedia)
2. Sister Mary Kenneth Keller : This piece is based off of an iconic photo of Sister Mary Kenneth Keller, who was the first person to receive a PhD in computer science. This piece was a little tricky for me, mainly because Sister Mary was a nun. I had to try and represent her without the design coming off as a religious piece rather than focusing on her achievements in the field of computer science. To lean into the computer science and UW-Madison focus of the design, I added some stickers to the computer next to her. I added a flamingo, which is the city bird of Madison, as well as an iconic symbol of the UW-Madison campus. I also added a badger face to represent the UW Madison mascot, as well as the word "Basic" in a classic digital text font to represent Sister Mary's work on the Basic coding language. The addition of the computer next to Sister Mary and the stickers helped to tie the whole design together, and communicate the message of the sticker in a subtle, yet clear manner.
3. Hello, World! : This sticker gave me another opportunity to represent my favorite era of computers- the bulky, beige boulders of the 90s. I just love their boxiness, and the nostalgic, cozy feeling of technology from this era. My initial iteration of this design had a few more wires and details coming from the computer, but Rachel and I agreed on simplifying the design down to make the whole design cleaner and more streamlined. The message, "Hello, World!" references a basic computer program that most computer science students learn at some point in their educational journey, acting as a little easter egg for students.
4. CS For All! : This design was the trickiest concept to bring to life for me. The prompt was essentially "something to communicate that computer science is for everyone". I first gravitated to the idea of the globe, a shared planet that's connected through computer science, and as a place that has never been as connected as we are now, thanks entirely to innovations in the field of computer science. I also wanted to communicate the idea of computer science being a field that is accessible for anyone and everyone to study, especially at UW-Madison. I settled on adding a grid in the classic computer text color to the globe, and adding a badger face to the foreground of the image to communicate that UW-Madison is a place that endorses and celebrates anyone and everyone's access to computer science education and engagement with technology.