These colorful murals were created by students for the College of Arts and Sciences building atrium and honored with a Judges Choice Award and a Gold ADDY.
For the 20th consecutive year, The University of Akron’s Myers School of Art in-house student design team, Design x Nine, has been honored by the Advertising Federation of Greater Ohio for its creations. This year’s team of nine graphic design students received three distinguished awards for its entries: one Judges Choice Award and two 2016 Gold ADDY awards, the highest-level award an entry can receive. The awards were presented Feb. 12 at a ceremony at the Akron Civic Theatre.
Design x Nine, under the instruction of co-creative directors Janice Troutman and John Morrison, is a career-focused studio within the Myers School of Art that offers graphic design students extensive learning experiences and engagement with real-world clients.
Colorful student murals win gold
The Judges Choice Award and Gold ADDY are the fourth and fifth awards Design x Nine has won for installations in the atrium of the College of Arts and Sciences building, including a national award from the American Graphic Design & Advertising 30 in 2015 and the Award of Excellence from University and College Designers Association in 2014. The installations are a type and image collage with UA logos and phrases, and a set of murals themed around the words “Explore, Create, Innovate.”
Among the 2016 ADDY winners are, from left, Dominic Iudiciani, Tamara Lewis, Aubrey Joseph, Joseph Malacky, Kat Dorio, co-creative director Janice Troutman, Jenn Shaw, Brandon Jones, Megan Steele and Erik Leib.
The team also received a Gold ADDY for a poster designed for the production "A Comedy of Errors."
An additional 15 student awards were given to 12 other UA graphic design students. The honorees are Megan Steele, Kat Dorio, Morgan Ricciardi, Tamara Lewis, Mikayla Murnane, Erik Leib, Kayla Pashovich, Jenn Shaw, Brandon Jones, Joseph Malacky, Aubrey Joseph and Dominic Iudiciani. Steele also received Best of Show.
The ADDY Awards are the advertising industry’s largest and most prominent annual competition, and more than 40,000 entries are submitted every year. The goal is to honor those who show excellence in advertising. Competitors must make it through three tiers of judging to be considered a national champion.
Story by Julie Mullet
Media contact: Lisa Craig, 330-972-7429 or lmc91@uakron.edu.