Four new Bluffton University graduates-three of them from Berne, Ind.-created an entrepreneurial venture that recently won the BIG Idea contest sponsored by the Bluffton Center for Entrepreneurs (BCE).

Remark Engineering, a design and marketing venture, was launched by Carter Sprunger, Bracton Eicher and Gregg Beitler, all from Berne, and Kenneth Miller, from Millersburg, Ohio. Sprunger, Remark's chief operating officer, said he, Eicher and Miller were inspired by entrepreneurial stories they heard at last November's Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) conference in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

With support from the BCE, MEDA and Bluffton business faculty, the Remark founders ran a logo design competition for J. Bankert Bookkeeping in Bluffton. "Essentially, our business plan was to crowdsource logo designs from up-and-coming graphic design and marketing students, allowing us to present our client with more designs and ideas than individuals could come up with on their own," Sprunger explained.

While the four graduates don't foresee having enough time to keep the business going, "the important thing is that we all learned more than we could learn in any classroom," he said. "It provided us all with some real-world experience in every area of business, from accounting and marketing to management.

"We even ended up turning a small profit," thanks to the $540 Apple gift card they received for winning the BIG Idea contest, he added, calling the experience a "very rewarding" one.

BCE, a nonprofit business incubator, has targeted student initiative as an important generator of new business concepts and jobs. "These are individuals who aren't waiting for opportunity to knock on their door," noted BCE board president Brendon Matthews. "We're very impressed with the professionalism, energy and ingenuity coming from these university students."

Sprunger, Eicher and Miller graduated from Bluffton in business, while Beitler, a partner in Remark, earned his bachelor's degree in physics.