MESA, AZ — A business logo is an essential part of a brand's identity. It’s often the first thing a customer sees. Sometimes it even impacts the product's future.
“The idea is when you rub the lotion bar in your hands, your body heat will warm it up so you can apply it as lotion instead of using a plastic container you’ll have to throw away by the end,” said Alexis Kelley, now a freshman at Red Mountain High School.
While working on her own idea for a more eco-friendly lotion, the 14-year-old was looking for her own logo. But what would customers respond to?
“I titled my project the Logic in Logos, because I kind of thought that summed up everything and it’s kind of catchy,” said Alexis, pulling out a large cardboard display you’d recall from a school science fair.
The project would be anchored by a series of science competitions. First at the state fair than on to a national competition with scholarship money on the line.
“For Swift Sneakers, I have this one, you can see it’s descriptive, it’s warm-colored and it’s round,” said Alexis showing ABC15 a logo she designed.
Alexis came up with a variety of fake companies, designing their "would be" logos in distinctive ways.
The parameters included round vs angular, warm colors vs cool, descriptive, and non-descriptive.
“I had one brand that was Waves Water Bottles and if it was warm colors, people were turned off by it because warm colors like red and yellow aren’t associated with water,” said Alexis regarding one of her many findings.
Each logo was looked over by 50 people and rated along the way. Participants described why they liked or disliked them and gave them a corresponding number ranking.
“We had females, males, different races, different ethnicities,” said Allen Kelley Jr., Alexis’ dad.
Alexis’ parents, needless to say, were blown away by their daughter’s analytical mind at such an early age.
“Alexis was the kind of girl that when she was in the third grade, she was on the playground teaching math to the other kids, that’s who she is,” said Allen with a laugh.
“I found that logos that use descriptive designs, it has the image or the words that describe the product do the best,” said Alexis.
The project and its findings caught the eye of judges, too. She won first place at the state fair and has now been declared a top 300 Broadcom Masters young scientist in a national competition. One that could end with a $25,000 scholarship.
“I am excited but I’m also nervous,” said Alexis.
The competition is being whittled down to 30 finalists later this month. While winning is no guarantee, her drive to change the world while continuing to inspire along the way is a foregone conclusion.