New design for Team Hill spirit pin

  • Published
  • By Mary Lou Gorny
  • Hilltop Times Editor
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  David Perry, 75th Public Affairs graphics designer, received the first Spirit Pin for 2014 in Building 1102 on April 5.

The Hill Air Force Base Spirit Award allows employees to recognize their peers for their contributions to the team and to their country. Each year, the Awards Committee solicits designs for a Spirit Award Pin giving the Hill community the opportunity to show their patriotism and support not only to the mission but to the team. This year, the committee received 10 design submissions.

Col. Frederick Thaden, 75th Air Base Wing vice commander, presented Perry with the first 2013 Spirit Award Pin. During the presentation, the colonel stated, "This award is a peer-to-peer award providing an opportunity to recognize those we work with."

Perry said, that although he had hesitated to enter the contest in the past, he felt the quality of the designs picked in the last few years as winners were sufficient to ensure that his entrance in the contest would be competitive and meet the measure of fair play.

"I kept seeing the pins from the years before in the newspaper every year and I kept thinking I should enter (the contest)," Perry said. He did some research and decided he wanted to give back.

He worked up multiple designs and chose one to submit.

"I picked something with the eagle (because to me) that represented the Air Force. It's an aggressive eagle because if you are going to get a spirit award the idea is you're not being passive -- you're showing action in what you are doing and of course in using the patriotic theme of stripes and stars I just think the two naturally flowed into the spirit award," Perry explained.

When it was pointed out that the striped bars sweep up almost as a second pair of wings, Perry said that was intentional. "Getting the Spirit (Pin) award is not a one-time action sort of thing -there's a repetition of performance ...by having more than one layer of wings, it kind of helps show that redundancy of the idea of both wings taking flight as well as the wings of the Air Force. There's a lot of symbolism behind the wings."

He also intentionally designed the pin with a retro vintage feel to the design. "(The Spirit Pin Award) is a longstanding program. It represents a history of past spirit award winners and so adding that retro element to it (brings that)."

The star the eagle is landing on is a carryover from the stars and stripes. "Also stars are sometimes used as 'You are here on the map,'" Perry continued. "It is a way of saying you are here."

He chose that particular representation of an eagle because it showed both action and power without the eagle in hunting mode or in flight.

The designer, who has worked for Hill AFB for nine years, said he typically follows requests submitted by others and then comes up with a concept based on submitted requirements. "For me graphic design is almost like problem-solving," he said. "I like working with people and I like to figure things out. If you combine graphic design and the intent behind marketing I am still solving problems."

Perry has a college degree in social psychology and uses those skills in creating, fleshing out and producing designs to meet people's needs. Prior to working at Hill AFB, he has been providing graphic and web design since 1991. His digital and commercial graphic talents have been used in places like the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, Disneyland, Magic Mountain and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

He was excited to enter a design for a program like the Spirit Pin. "It's easy to identify people who take pride in what they do. I'm glad that we have program that acknowledges that and awards them."