Design in Mind

The Mountain Day shirt is the emblem of Mountain Day here at Colby-Sawyer College. But who is the artist to credit behind the shirt worn by hundreds of students, faculty and staff this year? This year, Sierra Lemieux, a junior graphic design major, created the design.

Art has always been a passion of Lemieux’s. She started as a crime and legal studies student, but after one semester, she realized it was not for her. That’s when Sierra found she could turn her passion for art into a career reality. When creating the design for the Student Activities Office (SAO), she wanted to incorporate hand drawn elements and an aspect of Mount Kearsarge that hadn’t been included in recent Mountain Day shirts. While looking for inspiration, she came across a beautiful photo of the fire tower on top of Kearsarge and decided to incorporate it as the focal point.

Designing the Mountain Day T-shirt has opened doors for her. Working with the SAO as a graphic designer has led to designing orientation T-shirts and event posters for the office. Graphic design is an outlet for Sierra, especially when it comes to supporting her mental health. She loves having something to put herself into, and creating pieces people love gives her confidence and hope with moving forward in this field. Sierra explained how this design pushed her out of her comfort zone and tested the limits of her previous designs, having hand drawn each aspect. Sierra beamed when talking about how rewarding it’s been having the support of peers reaching out. She’s excited to see her design worn by people. For Sierra, the work comes easy; she loves what she does.