World University Games New York-made medals represent the game’s focus on sustainability

Will Fowler is a partner and creative director with Sidekick Creative, a graphic design company in Glens Falls, about 90 miles south of Lake Placid. “We created something that feels like a chunk of ice,” Fowler said. “It is very angular. It almost, from a profile, looks like a mountain ridge line as well.” What You Need To Know

• Sidekick Creative of Glens Falls designed this year’s medals for the World University Game in Lake Placid

• Alfred University created the glass inserts that represent the game’s focus on sustainability

• The glass used in the medals are made of recycled glass

It’s a design that was sent nearly 300 miles away to Alfred University, about an hour and a half south of Rochester, where those medals would be made. “Alfred University and the New York State College of Ceramics are often called a hidden gem because we are nestled down here in the valleys of the Southern Tier, Allegheny County,” Gabrielle Gaustad of Alfred University said. “However, we don’t really want to be hidden. We want everyone to know about the amazing things that we are doing down here.” Students worked with staff to create custom glass inserts that will go in each medal. “Each of these slivers will be cut, polished and become a medallion,” student Charlie Bellows added. Gabrielle Gaustad is Alfred’s Engineering School Dean. She, along with students like Charlie Bellows, are not only creating these inserts, but they are doing so in the exact spirit of these games. With so much of the focus of these games on sustainability and saving winter, this ice-inspired glass was recycled. “It’s a really important thing that we’re doing and we feel that obligation, but mainly it is excitement,” Gaustad added. Recycled glass combined with rare earth elements that causes it to go from ice blue, to glow orange, yellow and even red when exposed to ultraviolet light. And here in Lake Placid, the winter is what brings the fun. The games also teamed up with the Rochester Rehabilitation Center to pack the medals in special boxes created by Rochester’s Flour City Craft Company. “Every graphic designer’s dream is to work on some sort of sporting event that has the scope and scale that this does and the piece de resistance is the medal design,” Fowler said.