The Woodstock Public Library was looking for a design for a project they were working on. They came to MCC’s Graphic Design 2,3 and welding to help in fall of 2025. I was in the Graphic Design 3 class so I had the honor of being a part of this.
Woodstock Prairie Roots Website
Their project was titled “Prairie Roots” where the whole goal was to connect the community and to reintroduce some native Illinois plant life. They first partnered with Bluestem Ecological services to get that native plant life in the ground. The next step was MCC’s design department for a moongate (think hobbit hole entrance) and sound panels (3 panels with cutouts and lights behind). Everybody in the design 2 and 3 class made three proposed designs for both sound panels and the moongate and were sent to an internal MCC board to choose 5 finalists to present all three of their designs to the Woodstock Library in person. Whoever was chosen would have the design be laser cut out of large metal sheets and assembled made by MCC’s welding class and installed in the spring.
Backtracking a little to the actual design process, the library wanted something that would tie in to the native plants they already had installed. They also wanted some sort of natural wildlife tie in as well. There were restrictions with how small the laser could cut so all the designers had to work within those limitations.
After the day of presentations by the students, the Woodstock board took a few weeks to finalize which design they picked. I was chosen to have my design with the birds finalized and installed in the spring. I’m so honored to have my design permanently at the Woodstock Public Library!
