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STEP will be 40 years old this year. The company was officially registered on 1 November 1983 as Central Region Industry and Business Park Trust Limited and since then, to stay ahead, modern and relevant has undergone many transformations over the years to become what is today – STEP, Central Scotland’s Business Support Organisation and home to many of Stirling’s businesses.
Despite growth over the last 40 years, STEP remains closely linked to the local community and for that reason decided to invite local young people to take part in a competition to design a special logo for our 40th birthday year.
We were delighted to receive many creative, inspiring and unexpected entries even though this made it very difficult for our staff judges to shortlist to a final three and then ultimately choose a winner.
However, we did find a worthy winner – many congratulations to Sol Solanki, aged 16 from Dunblane High School who designed a very thoughtful logo that the staff felt represented STEP and that we will use on all of our marketing and promotion for our birthday celebrations.
Sol won the opportunity to sit down with STEP’s Marketing and Business Development Manager and a local Graphic Designer, Kevin Doyle from We Are Stirling who discussed her approach to the logo and how the logo could be brought to life. Kevin then took Sol’s drawing and transformed it into a digital logo.
Sol said: ‘I entered the competition after seeing it on my Art Google Classroom from school. I love all things Art & Design, I would love to work in design or media, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn with a design brief. I’m so thankful that STEP picked me!’
James Harrop, Owner of We Are Stirling said; “We were so impressed with Sol’s logo, she has a real talent for design and really took STEP’s current logo and brand into consideration. It’s great to see so many young people with an interest in design, it’s fair to say the future of design is secure.”
Jenn McArthur, Marketing and Business Development Manager at STEP said; “A huge thank you to everyone that entered the competition, each entry was amazing in its own way from crayoned coloured-in drawings to digitally designed entries I was in awe at some of the ideas and talent that we have locally. It was a tough decision to pick a winner and I’m so glad the decision wasn’t mine alone. After whittling it down to a top three we even had a draw until our very last staff member voted! Sol’s design really does represent STEP and working with We Are Stirling, she took the logo to the next level. We will be so proud to use the logo throughout 2023 – our birthday year.
We have a number of plans for 2023 to celebrate our birthday, which includes inviting ex-staff, tenants and members of the community to share any memories that they may have about STEP or our locations. This can include photos, documents or stories which we plan to use to create an exhibition which will be on show at our birthday party in August.”
Keep an eye on the company’s website www.stepscotland.co.uk and social pages for more details of their birthday coming soon.
Watch how We Are Stirling brought the winning drawing to life.
