Kirkwood Community College recently expanded their campus with new educational classrooms in Washington, Iowa. To celebrate the generous donors that made this happen a custom donor recognition wall was created for the main lobby. The 7 foot tall Kirkwood emblem is the focal point of the donor wall and it visually impacts the space and catches peoples attention. 
The combination of materials; aluminum, plexiglass and prints makes for an exciting and textural donor wall encouraging more donations. The donor naming panels are a translucent print that allows the natural beauty of the aluminum to come through and the panels are replaceable as more donors are added to the recognition wall.
The stunning 10′ x 7′ donor recognition wall adds branding through the school emblem and the school colors, but still is respectful of the donors. Great care was taken to ensure the design reflected the school, but didn’t take on the look of a short term advertising campaign. The donor wall has longevity and should last a lifetime of giving.
The Benton Community School District contacted Presentations to create three dedication plaques for various buildings. Gary Zittergruen, the Benton CSD Superintendent, spotted a plaque previously done by Presentations for the Cedar Rapids Community School District sparking his interest in a similar design.
Presentations created two dedication plaques based on the CRCSD design. Mounted on Plexiglas with standoffs to differentiate the mascot from the rest of the plaque, the addition of the school’s bobcat mascot to the donor plaques makes it distinctive to the school and adds dimension to the display.
Designed to stand up to the outdoor elements at the Bobcat Stadium, another plaque was fabricated from bronze for the Benton Community School District.
The biggest challenge for this project was getting a high enough resolution photo or vectored image of the mascot. It is beneficial to save the vectored images for any logos you may want to print later in order to retain image clarity. At the end of this project Presentations was able to provide Benton CSD with a high quality file of their bobcat mascot.
Benton Community School District can now show their pride with three beautiful dedication pieces.
The Linn-Mar School Foundation strengthens its community by partnering with businesses and individuals to raise, steward, and distribute funds, thereby enhancing educational excellence for present and future Linn-Mar students. With the goals to recognize both the “Beyond” endowment and “Annual” donors while reflecting the mission of the organization and speaking to the Linn-Mar community, the Linn-Mar School Foundation chose Presentations to design their donor wall.
The design is influenced by the Linn-Mar School Foundation logo and the lion mascot. The geometric logo and colors are brought in to the layout as a way to divide the wall into different sections and donor levels. The donor wall also serves to help educate about the foundation, using the mission statement and key words. Seven giving levels are identified on their own aluminum sections with larger lettering to emphasize the higher donation levels.
In the early stages of the donor wall Linn-Mar struggled to decide on the proper location. (You can read more about this debate in a previous post, “Does Location Matter?”) The Linn-Mar donor wall now hangs in the Linn-Mar High School. One concern with this location was durability and how the donor wall would hold up to high school tampering. To protect the individual lettering a clear piece of Plexiglas covers each aluminum panel, which can still be removed for easy donor updates. The annual section is a print that gets sandwiched between the Plexiglas and aluminum as a cost effective way for yearly changes. Finally, the lion is incorporated as the background element to emphasize the title and theme of this donor wall. Not to be the focus, the lion stands behind the panels with pride as a way to show thanks and belonging towards this organization.
The result is a donor wall that reflects the Linn-Mar School Foundation’s goals and gives them a relevant presence in a space that they can now be proud to stand by and update for years to come.
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ith global vision and innovative curriculum, Kirkwood is redefining the role of the community college in meeting the academic needs of the 21st century. Now more than ever, that vision is reaching far beyond its growing main campus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Working in partnership with eight school districts and other community partners, Kirkwood’s Jones Regional Education Center in Monticello will have a significant impact on the entire region, creating more educational opportunities, additional economic development and a better workforce.
To recognize this great partnership Kirkwood asked Presentations to design and create a recognition display for the new facility. Our first step was understanding this partnership and then to figure out in what way can we express this on a wall. A quote from Kirkwood’s President captured just that and we decided it was a great message to include within the display. Using the circular Kirkwood logo as the focus we designed arched sections to wrap around and create a sense of connection and partnership. We designed the piece to be an abstract art form on the wall which gives it interest to stand out and be noticed. The President’s quote is included on the largest section then the three addition overlapping layers stair step back to include around 200 partner/donor names. To create a lasting impression we created every thing on custom cut aluminum panels and applied clear lexan prints to allow the shimmer of the aluminum to shine and create impact.
The result is a one of a kind donor recognition wall that provides a lasting reminder of a partnership within a community which created a center that will serve as a national model for other rural areas to follow.
The stunning 10′ x 7′ donor recognition wall adds branding through the school emblem and the school colors, but still is respectful of the donors. Great care was taken to ensure the design reflected the school, but didn’t take on the look of a short term advertising campaign. The donor wall has longevity and should last a lifetime of giving.
