Two Graphic Design students took home the top student prize at the Mid-Michigan American Advertising Awards (ADDYs).
Department of Art, Art History, and Design students Malarie French and Will Mianecki received the overall Student Best of Show Award as well as a Gold ADDY for their CATA redesign project, which was entered in the Integrated Campaigns category. French is a double major in Graphic Design and Packaging, while Mianecki has a double major in Graphic Design and Professional Writing.
A Student Gold ADDY Award recognizes the highest level of creative excellence and is judged as superior to all other student entries in the category, with the Student Best of Show judged as the best student submission overall in the entire competition.
French and Mianecki’s CATA redesign project was completed as a class assignment in STA 462, Three-Dimensional Design, a Graphic Design studio course taught by Associate Professor Kelly Salchow-MacArthur.
“Our task was to redesign a wayfinding system of our choice. Will and I chose CATA, a bus transportation system that serves East Lansing, Michigan, as well as other communities,” French said. “Drawing on the concept of a cyclical bus route and daily routine, we created a new identity that uses concentric circles. The logo we created incorporates the circular form as well as an implied arrow icon. The redesigned system assigns each neighborhood a color temperature, as well as each bus a color and each bus stop a number. Our goal was to provide users with the clearest and most intuitive experience possible.”
The ADDY Awards are the advertising and marketing industry’s largest and most recognized competition with a mission of recognizing and rewarding creative excellence in the art of advertising.
Another top ADDY award went to Department of Art, Art History, and Design students Katee Farlow and Allison McGinn, both Graphic Design majors, who won a Judge’s Choice Award as well as a Gold ADDY for their integrated campaign created for Strange Matter Coffee Co. Mid-Michigan ADDY judge Jason J. Smith, President and Creative Director at Magnetry, Phoenix, Ariz., selected Farlow and McGinn’s entry for his Judge’s Choice Award. The other two judges for the competition included Mayysia Makowska, Chief Creative Officer at the Martin Group, New York, and Christian Mommertz, Chief Creative Officer at Geometry Global, Berlin, Germany.
Besides the Best in Show, Judge’s Choice Award and two Gold ADDYs, Department of Art, Art History, and Design students also took home five Silver and four Bronze ADDYs.
Silver ADDYs
Sales Promotion category
- Malarie French and Jenna Range, Omi packaging
- Will Mianecki, RISE/REST Tea packaging
- Katee Farlow and Allison McGinn, Strange Matter packaging
Integrated Campaigns category
- Margaret Clement, Evergreen Cycles branding
Digital Creative Technology
- Kelly Mackie, “Top 100”
Bronze ADDYs
Sales Promotion category
- Margaret Clement, Grapefruit Juice packaging
- Chloe Foster, The Landscape Garden book design
Television Advertising category
- Margaret Clement, “The Wedding Speech”
- Mia Serafini, “How to Walk a Sprout”
The ADDY Awards are the advertising and marketing industry’s largest and most recognized competition with a mission of recognizing and rewarding creative excellence in the art of advertising.
Hosted by the Mid-Michigan Creative Alliance, the local American Advertising Federation (AAF) chapter, the mid-Michigan ADDYs were presented Feb. 25 at the MSU Union. It is the first step in a three-tier process toward winning a national ADDY Award. All Gold and Silver ADDY award winners from the mid-Michigan ADDYs were encouraged to submit their work to the District 6 competition, which represents AAF clubs in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. District award winners will be notified by Friday, April 1.
