The Delaware County, Indiana, airport took an interesting approach with the logo contest it held. Instead of blindly asking designers to provide their work for free, they pitched the contest to local college design professors, who then assigned it to their students as homework.
From the Ball State Daily News:
According to a press release, senior Visual Communications major Samantha McIntire won the design contest for the airport out of a pool of 165 entries.
McIntire was awarded with the $500 contest prize at the Airport Authority Board meeting Tuesday.
According to the press release, the contest had designs from students of Ball State and Ivy Tech Community College and Ball State professors assigned the project as an assignment.