FORT EUSTIS, Va. –
No organizational merger or restructuring would be complete without a logo to illustrate a new beginning of two working as one and the joint basing of Fort Eustis and Langley Air Force Base is no exception.
With joint basing under way, a new logo illustrating the merger was needed so the creative genius of Gwyn Giacomo was tapped to bring the two entities together in one design.
Giacomo, a graphic designer at Fort Eustis' Enterprise Multimedia Center, is the designer of the 733d Mission Support Group patch adopted earlier this year after the unit stood up in the first step toward joint basing of the two installations.
When a new logo was needed to represent the union of Fort Eustis and Langley Air Force Base, 633d Air Base Wing commander Col. Donald E. Kirkland, turned to her again for design.
"I immediately knew I wanted to do a brushed silver design for the joint base logo. I didn't know if it would go over well, so I came up with several prototypes before I met with Col. Kirkland and knew any of his ideas," Giacomo said.
The first few drafts included a diamond shape, colored versions and a brushed silver version.
"Col. Kirkland had some ideas. The first idea was a quadrant design with something historical from both bases," Giacomo said.
But Giacomo wasn't very comfortable with the idea because for her, a quadrant would bisect the design.
"I wanted to show the union of Langley and Eustis and to dissect it would show a definite separation and we're trying to be a union of bases," she said.
So, after getting an idea of what Kirkland had in mind, Giacomo hit the drawing board.
"When he started telling me his thoughts on it, I just stuck with the brushed silver. We'd been doing quite a few brushed silver things around here, so it was already kind of stuck in my head and carried over into other designs," she said.
After several submissions, changes and tweaks, the final product was selected and Giacomo says she is honored to have been chosen to make her mark on the historical merger of the two communities.
"It is definitely a once in a lifetime chance and I mean, yeah, it's all in a day's work, but I knew from the beginning that this was important, and it is an honor to have been chosen," Giacomo said.