photo by M.Smith
Ole the Viking; the symbolic Viking mascot, is making a bold new fashion statement by de-robing his traditional Viking wardrobe and adding a modern cartoon-like twist.
Ole, who wears his signature horned-armored helmet and drapes himself in red and black school spirited colors, lined with fur, debuted his new look in the form of a limited edition animated sticker series.
The Ole the Viking sticker series features six different stickers was created by LBCC Business Club President Ryan Smith to benefitted the LBCC Child Development Center and Learning Lab and the LBCC Business Club Scholarship Fund.
“ I’m all for supporting a cause even if it’s a dollar, the sticker is cool and it gives back to students as well.” said graphic design major Rebeca Alvarez who purchased the “ Future 3018 Ole” sticker a Futurama parody of Ole’s head preserved in glass display.
The sticker series was the idea of Smith, who originally had plans for the sticker sale to be only one day and one style, but the campaign expanded to six different Ole stickers styles being sold over the span of three months.
“I originally came up with the sticker idea for a much smaller campaign,” Smith said.
“I pitched producing the kawaii (cute in Japanese) Ole for Japan’s Children’s Day in late April and early May with the proceeds benefiting the CDCs,” Smith said.
“After showing the board the kawaii design and receiving a positive response, I decided to preview a few other Ole inspired designs that I had commissioned for another potential project. That’s when this fundraising and service project became a whole series.”
The club’s motto “Strictly Business” became sort of a family business with Nick Carbonaro as their advisor.
“I was so thankful to Ryan and his leadership for thinking about the CDC and benefitting so many children through this sticker campaign, including my own. ” said Carbonaro a full time faculty member and dad.
Carbonaro’s son attends the CDC and his daughter who will enroll next year.
For each sticker release, each business club member went out and sold their sticker packages and logged in their individual sales. The sticker sales were a real-world situation of handling money and Smith used the opportunity to use the process of fundraising as a teaching tool.
“By raising the money to give to the kids we’re making dreams come true because childcare is expensive”, said Brenda Green a business major and a participant in the sticker sale.
“The Limited Edition Ole Sticker Series has been a business exercise in budgeting, intellectual property, supply chain, branding, demand generation and general entrepreneurship,” Smith said. “We also wanted to promote to our members the value of philanthropy.”