Moapa Valley Progress
The iconic miner on a rocky hillside welcoming visitors to Nevada for the last 25 years has finally retired. New “Welcome to Nevada” signs have been installed at the state boundary all over the state. And the new signs have a local tie.
Moapa Valley High School 2016 graduate Brynne McMurray, 19, created the design that is going up all over the state. She did the work as part of her graphic design class in her senior year at MVHS.
The effort was an entry into a contest run by Travel Nevada, part of the Nevada Department of Tourism, to find new welcome signs that more accurately represent the varied beauty of the state. The contest began in the spring of 2016. Students from all over the state were invited to submit designs. The top designs in each geographic area of the state were chosen to be displayed on the travelnevada.com website for a public vote.
Designs from both McMurray and fellow MVHS student Ethan Smedley were chosen as one of four finalists for the southeast quadrant of Nevada. McMurray’s design ended up winning.
“I was so excited when I heard my design had won,” McMurray said. “I didn’t expect it because there were so many really cool designs, but I was very honored to win.”
McMurray and the other three state winners were flown to Reno in June of 2016 to meet with Travel Nevada representatives and unify their designs a little more. For the first half of the day, the students were taken on a tour of the NDOT sign-making facility to see how highway signs are made.
After leaving the facility the kids were taken to a work location to modify their designs. Modifications needed to be made to the artwork to fit the NDOT production process.
The four winning designs were varied. One depicted bighorn sheep, another showed Nevada’s cowboy heritage. McMurray’s, depicted the beauty of the sunrise off the red rock found in this area. The idea behind having four winners was to develop signs that accurately reflected the unique nature of different areas of Nevada.
Brenda Nebesky, of Travel Nevada, told the students that in the real world, part of being a graphic designer includes working with a client and changing designs to suit their client. In this case, the client was Governor Sandoval, she said.
Nebesky then explained that, after viewing the four winners, Sandoval had liked McMurray’s sign so well that he wanted the other three winners to modify their designs to incorporate the general design in McMurray’s sign, including the “Battle Born” seal and cobalt blue color of the Nevada state flag.
In the end, McMurray’s design was used for all four new signs, with the scene inside the word “Nevada” being the only variable between the signs. McMurray’s sign for the southeast quadrant remains the same, but the scene inside the word “Nevada” for the signs in the other quadrants of the state were taken from the other winners’ designs.
Sandoval revealed the final designs at the Governor’s Global Tourism Summit in Reno on October 11, 2016. But the signs have been slow to go up around the state. McMurray’s sign went up just this month on the NV/AZ border outside Mesquite.
The main “Welcome to Nevada” sign greets visitors coming into the state on southbound I-15, and a smaller “Thanks for Visiting Nevada” sign utilizing the same design bids farewell to those leaving the state on northbound I-15.
McMurray says the entire experience has been a positive one. “I’m really happy that Travel Nevada did this program because I feel it really helped high school programs around the state,” she said. “I think it would be awesome if more companies and businesses reached out and included high school students in real-life projects.”
Winning the contest has had an impact on McMurray, who is currently studying graphic design at Utah State University. “If it weren’t for this contest, I’m not sure I would have had the courage to study graphic design and be where I am now,” she said.
However, she is quick to give credit to the help she has received along the way. “This whole thing would not have been possible without the great support of my MVHS graphic design teacher Maria Chidester,” she said.
Being away at school, McMurray has yet to see her sign in person on the interstate. But she hopes to see it on her next visit home. “Every time I pass it I can say ‘Hey! That’s my sign! I made that!’” she said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”
