The American Advertising Awards, more commonly known as the Addys, takes entries from Graphic Design majors and professionals every year and evaluates them based on the certain qualities and standards of the graphic design industry today.
On the evening of February 28, 2015, 124 of the 238 student entries were awarded with a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal at a gala. Seven of these winners were from Southern Nazarene University, including Ashley Grubert for the Poster Campaign category, Callee Mason for Elements of Advertising: Logo Design, Nick Tucker for App Design and Laura Quevedo for Poster Design and Website Design. Three other winners, Anna Grace Mercer, Morgan Mosshart and Jordan Babcock spoke with The Echo about the experience and significance of winning Addys.
Mosshart, who is a sophomore, entered the contest with a hand-lettering poster series and placed silver. She informed me as to why these awards are so prestigious for Graphic Design majors as well as professionals.
“Receiving an Addy Award is basically a confirmation that your design work can hold its own in the industry,” said Mosshart. “In other words, it tells you that you have a future.”
AnnaGrace Mercer, placing Bronze, echoed Mosshart’s explanation of the importance of these awards.
“They are extremely important to graphic design students because they can be the difference between getting a job or being overlooked,” said Mercer, senior. “It also looks really impressive on your resume.”
She also pointed out that the awards are made up of various categories, as well as the fact that it is an honor to place in these categories.
“It’s not just for advertisement design, but also logo, print, photography, animation, illustration, videography and more,” said Mercer. “I won Bronze for the Elements of Advertising: Logo Design category; although I’m not sure how many people were in this category, I want to say Callee Mason was the only other person in the contest who placed besides me.”
Sophomore Jordan Babcock, who turned in an entry for Poster Design along with Laura Quevedo, also won Bronze.
“I created a human rights poster that brings attention to child slavery in the chocolate industry, and it was an honor to receive an award for it,” Babcock said. “The subject of my poster is something that I’m passionate about and I enjoyed creating.”
Like Mercer, Babcock is also excited about the way this award could look to future employers when they review his resume.
“This should give me job opportunities I might not have had otherwise.”
[author image=”https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=0BzUPfa-vNtHwN2RXSGN1NDRxYjA&authuser=0&v=1409347068124&sz=w1248-h559″ ]Summer Howard, Guest Contributor <br> Summer is a sophomore English Education major and Christian romance author from Yukon, Oklahoma. Her first book, No Matter What, was published in September of last year. She is currently working on her next book while attending Southern Nazarene University. [/author]