“As you stroll down the senior hallway to one of your classes, it may seem like you are walking down a bright tunnel of never-ending colors,” wrote Normal West student and 2001 graduate, Mandy Garner.

Her observation still rings true, although written nearly 25 years ago.

Since the ‘89-’99 school year, Normal West’s senior hallway has been the most colorful part of the building. 

Senior brick painting was an idea suggested by the student council.

Business teacher Mr. Tim Franz was the co-advisor at the time.

“One of our board members saw the idea at a State Student Council ‘Hall of Ideas’ and asked me if I thought we could do something like that at West,” Franz shared.

Currently, seniors paint their bricks at the end of the year, usually during May, but the original idea was that seniors would paint their bricks around September and leave the paintings up for their senior year and then symbolically paint over them before they graduate.

“This also allows the students to ‘own’ a part of the school for their senior year,” Garner explained in her original piece. 

Quickly, seniors became sentimental and decided they didn’t want to paint over their creations, and instead, wanted to leave a mark on the school forever.  

The oldest bricks are still standing in the school and slowly being refurbished. 

“The Archive Club is slowly repainting some of the older ones, trying to fix them so the paint looks better,” explained current Student Council sponsor, Lisa Nichols. 

There has always been a $10 fee to paint a brick and the money goes to other senior events like Senior Sundown, where students have a kickback at the school and watch the sunset. 

The other requirement to paint a brick is a sketch that must be approved by the assistant principals. 

“[The bricks] were very basic. Now that people are getting very elaborate and bringing in sketches, they’ll bring in major drawings and stencils,” Nichols added. 

Seniors get to spend all of the half-day on West Fest, if they choose, to begin the first layer of paint on their brick.

Then, they sign up for two shifts to paint their details over the following weekend.

The tradition has lasted so long for many reasons.

One being students get to leave a “living legacy,” Nichols added.

As the years go by and the tradition continues, more and more of the hallway is transitioning into the student-driven art.

“Since there’s so many[bricks], we’re starting to go down the middle of the hallways,” Nichols added.

“When students come back for reunions or other reasons, they almost always want to look at their senior bricks. It is one of the best West traditions,” Franz admitted.