Georgia Southern art students win Gold and Silver ADDY awards

March 22, 2018

BFSDoArt Graphic Design students received Gold and Silver Awards at the American Advertising Awards (ADDYs) this year. From left: Ellyn Duncan, Cara Carew, Abigail Hutchins, Macintyre Pullen, Quinn Howard, Emily Hudson, Angelica Wallerstedt, and Mitchell Burgess.

Georgia Southern undergraduate graphic design students received Gold and Silver awards at the American Advertising Awards (ADDYs) presented by the American Advertising Federation of Augusta, Georgia.

Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art (BFSDoArt) students Abigail Hutchins and Macintyre Pullen received a Gold ADDY in the Cross Platform Integrated Brand Identity Campaign category for R&R Chicken Branding. R&R Chicken is a company based in Blackshear, Georgia, and is owned by Georgia Southern alumna Robin Heavilon and her husband, Rick. As BFSDoArt Design Incubator clients, the couple has worked closely with students and Associate Professor of Graphic Design Santanu Majumdar. The students’ designs, including R&R corporate identity and packaging design for Broiler Bold Spicy BBQ sauce, will be used to market the company’s signature barbecue sauces.

Design Incubator was started last year summer with a goal to provide graphic design students a professional experience while in college. Design Incubator recruits students like any other real-world job application and selection process through portfolio and interviews.

“Students not only work on design projects but also get an opportunity to present and discuss with the clients about the projects,” Majumdar said. “This process helps students to not only to understand confidential nature of any industry projects but also the client-designer relationship.”

Ellyn Duncan received a Gold ADDY in the Cross Platform Integrated Brand Identity Campaign category for her work Element5 Brand Identity. Duncan created the Element5 brand as part of a theoretical exercise for a graphic design class.

“This project was designed to teach students a creative problem-solving process known as Simplex,” said Assistant Professor of Graphic Design Jason Murdock. “First, students are given a ‘fuzzy situation.’ This is an unframed problem that has no clear answers, forcing them to conduct research to better understand what they, as graphic designers can do to address the problem. In the case of Element5, Ellyn was asked to consider what might happen if two entities merged.”

Ellyn decided to merge bicycle-maker Schwinn and the US Navy for her project. She focused on strengths shared by the two entities—exercise and fitness—and invented, named, and branded a multi-event competition known as Element5. The events in the competition stem from Navy SEALs training exercises but would be less intense for a general audience. The visual identity for the Element5 competition is intended to convey the active, gritty, outdoor nature of the events through the use of an earth tone color palette and the gestural, expressive texture of the identity assets.

Students from Majumdar’s Professional Practices class received a Silver ADDY in Out of Home & Ambient Media Guerilla Marketing, Installation and Events Single Occurrence for “Georgia’s History in 50 Objects,” a new exhibit coming soon to the Georgia Southern Museum. Abigail Hutchins, Angelica Wallerstedt, Cara Carew, Emily Hudson, Mitchell Burgess, and Quinn Howard designed not only the identity but also the exhibit.

Professional Practices has been working in collaboration with Georgia Southern Museum for last six years. The class works every year on a temporary year-long exhibit design project. Students work in groups and compete against each other for the final design selection by the committee, which consists of the museum director and faculty members from other departments.

“Students not only design the project but also successfully execute it every year,” said Majumdar. “This is a unique example of thinking through doing and collaborations.”

Georgia Southern University, a public Carnegie Doctoral/Research institution founded in 1906, offers 142 degree programs serving more than 27,000 students through nine colleges on three campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, Hinesville and online instruction. A leader in higher education in southeast Georgia, the University provides a diverse student population with expert faculty, world-class scholarship and hands-on learning opportunities. Georgia Southern creates lifelong learners who serve as responsible scholars, leaders and stewards in their communities. Visit GeorgiaSouthern.edu.