UN week, a highlight of the school year, is a celebration of our unique collective diversity. It encourages us to embrace our similarities as we celebrate and honour traditions from around the world. And what CIS UN week would be complete without our annual UN logo competition. Each campus, Lakeside and Tanjong Katong, has their own competition. We are very pleased to announce this year’s winners: Koyuki Inoue (grade 7, Lakeside) and Akriti Gupta (grade 6, TK)

We talked to each artist recently to learn more about their design concept and to understand how they felt about their win.

Koyuki Inoue (grade 7, Lakeside) - UN Theme 'Hand in hand'

How do you feel about winning the logo design competition a second time (Koyuki won the TK competition last year)?

Koyuki: I’m proud of myself. Actually, I won two logo design competitions at TK in grades 4 and 6, and now this one at Lakeside. I really have to thank my dad. I had all the ideas but he gave me some good advice on colours and how I could improve my design.

How did you come up with the design concept?

Koyuki: The theme is ‘hand in hand’ so I was thinking of drawing a handshake. After drafting some initial designs, I realised that it didn’t really look good on paper. Then I thought of drawing a heart that contains different nationalities because I initially didn’t understand the meaning of ‘hand in hand’. My dad explained that ‘hand in hand’ is like two shaking hands so I wanted to add that to the heart but it didn’t work out either. In the end, I decided to go with the idea of drawing a heart but include groups of two people holding hands because I thought it would match the concept. My dad helped me with the colours as well as helped me understand what people from different nationalities would look like. At first, there were only groups of 2 people holding hands around the heart but after reviewing my design, I decided that having groups of 3 people would balance out the design.

What advice do you have for future logo competition participants?

Koyuki: I think that you should design according to the theme. I didn’t win the competition in grade 5 because my design didn’t match the theme, although I was chosen as the runner-up.

Were there any challenges while designing the logo?

Koyuki: It was kind of hard to come up with new ideas because I’ve participated in many school art competitions.

Akriti Gupta (grade 6, TK) - UN Theme 'Our beauty lies in our diversity'

Congratulations on winning the TK UN week logo competition. How are you feeling about your win?

Akriti: I feel happy and very excited about it.

Is this your first time winning the competition?

Akriti: Yes, it is!

Tell us the story behind your design?

Akriti: The black paint symbolises space and how it’s never ending. The tree represents different countries and the diversity of life. The planet is the place we all love - Earth.

What or who gave you the inspiration?

Akriti: My mother gave me the inspiration to make this painting.

Did anyone help you with the design and logo concept?

Akriti: My mom helped me with the materials from her art class and she even stayed up extra late to help and offer support, but I did the rest of the design myself!