Each year, world-renowned publishing company Graphis Inc. recognizes the work of up-and-coming design students during their New Talent Annual. This year, they received 1160 submissions from around the world and chose to recognize 22 of the 25 projects sent in by BYU. Design major Todd McAllister was the only student from BYU — and one of just 21 students total — to walk away with the annual’s highest honor: the Platinum Award. “I was pretty surprised when I found out that I had won the award,” said McAllister. “It’s nice to get some validation after working hard on a project like that. There are a lot of great designers that submit to Graphis each year, so it was a significant personal achievement to win an award against such tough competition.” The designs that won McAllister the award were for Dwell Magazine. McAllister was tasked with re-designing the magazine’s current cover in a way that was aesthetically pleasing but still on-brand. McAllister’s approach to the project was centered on his love for clean, uncluttered design. “I seem to be drawn to simple, minimalistic design because it leaves me with a sense of awe or piques my interest somehow,” said McAllister. “The design direction was inspired by wanting to achieve that same feeling in a magazine cover.” McAllister said he isn’t sure exactly what set his designs apart from the rest of the competition, though his guess is that it was how well the designs paired photos and text. “In my opinion, a lot of beautiful cover photographs are ruined with really busy headlines and other text elements,” said McAllister. “I think that trying to reduce that as much as possible so the photos can speak for themselves might have set my designs apart from the rest.” While McAllister’s designs may have been simple, the creative process that led to the finished pieces was not. He repeatedly designed covers and critiqued them until he settled on three final designs. McAllister said his favorite part of working on the project was figuring out the title part of the design. “I had been through tons of iterations that didn’t seem to feel right, but something about the lowercase masthead placed vertically along the side of the cover seemed to click, and then things sort of fell into place from there,” said McAllister. His experience working on the designs and winning the award impacted McAllister in a lasting way. “I definitely think this experience will have a positive impact on my future career,” he said. “If nothing else, it has helped me feel a bit more confident in my abilities, which is pretty vital to creativity.” After graduation, McAllister doesn’t imagine his future as a concrete, five-year-plan type of journey. “My future career goals basically involve waking up everyday excited to work on whatever project I have,” said McAllister. “I guess I don’t really have a specific position or place I want to be in, I just want to be excited about the work that I’m doing while pushing the boundaries of what I’m able to do.” For now, McAllister and the other students who were honored by Graphis Inc. are waiting for their work to be published in the hardcover version of the New Talent Annual, which comes out May 1, 2019.

Artist Michael Parker opens up on his success and how BYU impacted him in a Q&A

“Ballet in Concert” brings “Sleeping Beauty” and modern masterpieces by Balanchine and Arpino to audiences. The BYU Department of Dance hopes to introduce new fans to the splendor of ballet with the performance of “Sleeping Beauty” on Feb 28. “Ballet, by and large through the ages, has been removed from the general public,” said Shayla Bott, the concert’s artistic director. “You’re seeing dancers that move in a way that makes the general public think, ‘I can’t even walk like that, much less do what they’re doing.’ But, we really try to make it fun.” Read more here.

The BYU Singers Selected to Perform at Prestigious National Conference for Choral Directors

Viola Professor Claudine Bigelow Receives Grants for Interdisciplinary Folk Music Research

Department of Dance professor Marin Roper presents to students, faculty and staff on how dance can be used to connect with oneself, God and other people.

BYU's animation bachelor of science program was ranked first in the nation by Animation Career Review in 2018. Read more and see some of the animation students' best work in BYU Magazine.

BYU’s Museum of Art will be hosting a guided tour of the exhibition “Pulitzer Prize Photographs” on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 12:10 p.m. The exhibit closes on March 3, so the tour will be one of the last chances visitors will have to view the photography. The exhibit, which is on lend from the Newseum in Washington D.C., features Pulitzer Prize photography since 1942, interactive kiosks and videos of interviews with the photographers. Kenneth Hartvigsen, the museum’s curator of American art, will guide visitors through the various parts of the exhibition. “Viewing the entire collection of Pulitzer Prize photographs together will be a profound experience that will remind visitors of the responsibility we all have to learn from history and work together to create a brighter future,” said Hartvigsen. To learn more about the event, visit the MOA’s website or their Facebook Page, where the Gallery Talk will be livestreamed.

School of Music Professor Michelle Kesler explores if one can find meaning independent of the outcome throughout the creative process.

Dancers can struggle with eating disorders and perfectionism, but dancing environments can play a major role in helping dancers be mentally healthy. BYU dance professors are striving to make dance environments positive and healthy for dance students. While the need to be thin and “perfect” is a common mindset in the majority of the dance world, things are much different at BYU, according to BYU ballet administrator and BYU ballet artistic director Shayla Bott. Click here to read more.

School of Communications Professor Kevin John used eye tracking technology to map how men process body image differently than women. Read more about his research here.

Three BYU graduates teamed up to bring their influence to the Provo art scene on Friday, Feb. 1 in the Tiny Art Show. The Tiny Art Show is a community project started by BYU graduate McKay Lenker Bayer that brings miniature art to unique spaces. Since December 2018, the Tiny Art Show has showcased different artists who have an interest in miniature art. Read more here.