Graphic communication senior Brandon Lutze won first place for his “Rethink Print” themed poster in the Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF) 2010 Student Design Competition.
For the contest, students created marketing materials for the GRAPH EXPO 2011, one of the largest industry expositions and conferences in the United States, according to a press release.
The exposition is international and far-reaching, said graphic communication department head Harvey Levenson.
In the post-secondary category, 32 students created a theme which designed artwork incorporating their theme and produced a finished marketing product for next year’s exposition, which will take place Sept. 11 to Sept. 14, 2011.
In his winning poster, Lutze’s theme “captures how print is changing every single day and how it can go in every single direction,” professor and adviser to Lutze, Lorraine Donegan, said.
Donegan and Lutze traveled to Chicago for the GRAPH EXPO 2010 where Lutze was awarded a $2,000 check during the GRAPH EXPO 2010’s Career Awareness Day. Graphic communication senior Kathleen Lee also won third place and received an award of $1,000 for her “Print is Alive” poster
Lutze said students in Donegan’s magazine design technology class had a brainstorming session for a theme for posters in which they could either use their own theme or use a provided theme.
Initially, Lutze said the poster design “was a process.”
“What I do (before designing) is sketch on the computer, since I’m not a good artist, and get an idea of what I want to do for a basic concept and then critique it,” Lutze said.
With his “Rethink Print” design, he said he “got a general concept of what (he) wanted the design to say and went from there.”
Lutze designed his poster, which shows paint droplets of cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) falling on a half-white and half-turquoise background and the “ink” in “rethink” emphasized in CMYK colors, to communicate the simple message.
“Print and design can get complex, so it’s best to simplify it to the fundamentals,” Lutze said.
Donegan said Lutze was judged by numerous professionals in the graphic communication industry.
His design won because it combined “beautiful photography with simple typography that was eye-catching,” Donegan said.
Levenson said Donegan’s students win frequent awards in many national competitions because Donegan motivates them to challenge themselves creatively.
“She is absolutely awesome,” Levenson said. “This woman is so creative and knows the creative process and knows how to motivate students and knows how to get them thinking creatively.”
He said in the past Donegan has submitted her students’ work to industry competitions without indicating they were students and the pieces ended up winning prizes.
“The awards that she’s won for her students are incredible,” Levenson said.
Levenson said Lutze won the award because he’s “very focused and very dedicated as a student.”
As a senior graduating this year, Lutze said his award will help him in his future endeavors. He is already looking at careers with a few companies for post-graduation.
“It will be good for marketing myself,” Lutze said.