Every year during the spring the City of Gilbert hosts a graphic design sustainability competition which high school students can enter. This year Perry Senior Jayden Ocken won the competition with her design of two cacti hugging against a pink background with the sustainability saying  “Conserve water by planting native plants instead of grass”. 

The City of Gilbert came up with different quotes involving sustainability, and students had to choose a quote then create a design that went along with that quote. The goal for this competition is to help promote green living through a fun and interactive way for students.  

Graphic design teacher Caryn Butler, gave the opportunity to students to do the competition for fun and for extra practice with their graphic designing, “…I posted it in the classroom and anyone the wanted to do it could, we did not do it as a class project like we had done in previous years” said Butler. 

Ocken won the competition this year with her design of cacti hugging promoting planting native plants in Arizona to reduce water usage. “I did the one about native plants and I chose cacti hugging because it was cute, and it just shows we need to plant more cacti here” said Ocklen about her design and design process for this competition. 

Ocken not only won a 100 dollar gift card but she also got to have her design put on a trash truck to help promote her sustainability idea. “…when I got to see the truck reality hit, wow my art’s on a truck this is super cool” said Ocken.