Chautauqua Striders staff members display the organization’s new logo at a launch party held at their main offices. Submitted photo

It’s a new year, and one local organization has given its logo a noticeable facelift.

Chautauqua Striders recently celebrated the launch of its new logo and brand identity with a special event for its staff, volunteer mentors, board of directors, funders and partners.

The new brand identity reflects the organization’s evolution and growth over the past four decades, as well as its vision for the future. Chautauqua Striders was founded in 1979 as a running club by Dan Feather and Ron Graham and has since expanded to offer a variety of programs and services that support the academic, social-emotional, and physical development of youth in the community.

“I am very proud of the variety of programs offered through our organization and I wanted a logo, tagline and graphic icon that reflected all of the important work being done to support students,” said Jen Swan-Leuze, Chautauqua Striders executive director.

The new logo, designed by Brandon Carlson of Three Sixty Graphics, features a stylized track and graduation cap, symbolizing the organization’s mission of empowering youth to achieve their full potential through academics, mentoring, and athletics. It is also a visual representation of the goal of Striders’ programming that is keeping students on track to graduate.

The new logo incorporates the colors of navy blue and the identifiable Strider’s red.

The logo designer also earned high marks from Strider’s executive director for being new, bold, vibrant while paying homage to the organization’s origins and expanded programing endeavors since its inception.

“Brandon did a wonderful job creating a logo that did just that,” Swan-Leuze said.