Zigzag resident Laurie Crabb almost didn’t submit an entry for the logo contest spearheaded by the Rhododendron Community Planning Organization’s (CPO) Rhody Rising subcommittee.

She noted that it was only about 10 days before the March deadline that she learned about it in The Mountain Times.

“It ended up being kind of an 11th hour effort, literally delivering artwork to
the meeting for first judging round,” Crabb said. “I had just finished it the
night before.”

At the CPO’s May 19 meeting, Crabb’s design stood alone as the winner of the
contest, the one logo selected from the 45 entries originally submitted.
She added that there were a lot of good entries, including ones she voted for
during the first round of voting in March.

“I was very pleasantly surprised,” Crabb said. “It’s very pleasing that my work
was able to stand up in that field.”

Crabb, who has lived on the mountain for 15 years and has worked at the
Rendezvous Bar and Grill for the past 10 years, has always been into drawing,
painting and sculpting, and she also received a bachelor's degree in
illustration from Pacific Northwest College of Art. She noted that while she
doesn’t do a log of graphic design, she found the contest a challenge because

there was no input from a client, as typically might happen when creating a
logo.

To create her design, Crabb selected some of the visually iconic elements of
the area, including Mount Hood with the alpenglow, the forest and the
rhododendron flower, then sketched out a concept and narrowed it down.
As the winner, Crabb received four vouchers for Mt. Hood Adventure, a ski
rental package at Otto’s Ski Shop in Sandy, a gift certificate for $25 at the
Skyway Bar and Grill, a gift certificate for 18 holes and a cart for two at the
Mount Hood Oregon Resort and $500 cash.

Four finalists made it to the May 19 meeting, and while Steve Graeper, CPO
President, didn’t release the final voting tally, he noted that a total of 30 votes
were cast by the CPO constituents and that Crabb’s logo “won handily.”
“I’m very pleased with how the contest went,” he said. “Any one of those
logos would have been a great logo. We really appreciate the work that
everyone did.”

Graeper expects to get some mock-ups done for a t-shirt and a mug with the
logo on them for the next CPO meeting. If all goes well, he added that there
could be items featuring the logo for sale during the annual Steiner Cabin tour
this August.

Crabb noted that she’s looking forward to seeing the logo on items and that it
should lend itself well to being printed.

The Rhody Rising subcommittee will hold a community input meeting at 6
p.m. Wednesday, June 6, in the Trees Room at the Mt. Hood Oregon Resort,
68010 East Fairway Ave. in Welches.