CPS launches redesigned website, new student-designed logo

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Public Schools launched a redesigned website Thursday, which the nation's third-largest school district says will allow visitors to easily access information and resources across from all devices.

A new logo was created by CPS students as part of a city-wide contest and represents children growing and ultimately graduating.

The image of a student, from little tot to proud graduate will now represent Chicago Public Schools. Hundreds of students entered the contest and the winning image was designed by two students whose ideas were merged into one.

Seventeen-year-old Ivan Delgado, a senior at Prosser High School, originally designed three circles with the city's skyline and the name of the district along with the color. The final product ended up being one circle.

"It shows the smaller student entering the circle and the older student exiting the circle," Delgado said.

Fourteen-year-old Phuong Le, who will be a freshman at Lincoln Park High School, is a perpetual classroom doodler and entered the contest just for fun. Le designed three silhouettes illustrating students growing up.

"The students symbolize CPS. CPS is nothing without the people, so I decided to include silhouettes of people," Le said.

There were 265 student submissions for the logo. CPS could not decide between the final two, so they decided to get the students together to collaborate.

"The two students got together with a graphic artist and really worked in an extraordinarily professional way for young people and they were very give-and-take, and understood that this had to be a synergy in order to make this logo work," said Jackie Rodgers, CPS' executive director of digital and branding.

"The smaller student is entering the circle, as in he's entering CPS, and as the the last student breaks through the circle as if he is graduating," she said.

"That is what we strive for through the entire theme," he said. "There might be some things that stop us, but we always strive to get out of that circle and graduate."

The new logo will represent CPS everywhere, including on its new re-designed website that will size itself to whatever device you are on.

Le wants to be a surgeon and Delgado wants to be an architect.

CPS officials say the newly redesigned website is much more user friendly than the old one.

To view CPS new website: http://www.cps.edu/Pages/home.aspx