The design of a campus card says a lot. The aesthetics of student IDs vary widely from university to university, but overall the design of a campus card should reflect and represent the institution. And what better way to ensure that this is the case, than to allow the cardholders themselves play a role in the design process?

Beginning this month, all Southern Illinois University-Carbondale identification cards will include a background picture taken by one of the university's very own students. According to Southern Illinois-Carbondale's official website, the student's photograph captured the university's Student Services Building fountain at sunset, and was selected as the winning photo in the Student Center’s SIU ID Photo Contest.

The student, a junior cinema major who is also pursuing a minor in photography, was walking across and noticed that the sun was ideally positioned behind the fountain. Taking the opportunity to capture a great photo, the student snapped the shot with her smartphone and submitted it as her official entry in the contest.

As part of the university-run contest, students submitted nearly 250 photo entries via Instagram or email. The winner received a $100 University Bookstore gift card for submitting the winning campus scene picture. The university will now print the picture as a background on all newly-printed, official campus ID cards.

Similar to a recent student contest at Cincinnati wherein a student was selected to be the face of all campus card marketing material, the contest at SIU is another great example of how a university can get students involved with the campus card, while also enhancing the design elements of the IDs they carry.