Season posters for the 2016-17 BYU Theatre and Media Arts productions have received several top awards at three prestigious competitions. BYU ARTS Creative is no stranger to winning awards. This year their work has garnered several top awards in regional and national competitions. BYU ARTS Creative won the Copper Ingot Award for the third year in a row at the AIGA Salt Lake City 100 Show and received a Grand Gold Award at the national CASE Circle of Excellence Awards. The Salt Lake City chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, hosts the AIGA SLC 100 Show each year. The show is known as Salt Lake City’s “most prestigious juried competition,” with 100 entries selected and judged by nationally recognized judges on “craft, concept, and aesthetic achievement.” BYU ARTS Creative won its third Copper Ingot Award for the BYU Theatre and Media Arts Season Posters. The Copper Ingot Award is presented to the top 10 pieces of the show. BYU also received Merit Awards for the BYU School of Music’s American Piano Quartet Poster, the University Chorale Poster and the BYU Arts 2016-17 Season Brochure. The show put the design team against difficult competition “It’s important to take into consideration that we are going up against design and marketing studios in the region with full-time designers, and we do it with part-time student graphic designers,” said BYU ARTS Creative Art Director, Nick Mendoza. On the national level, the BYU Theatre and Media Arts Season Posters received a Grand Gold Award at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Circle of Excellence Awards (CASE). After receiving Gold and Grand Gold Awards at the district level, the posters went on to receive 1 of 16 Grand Gold Awards given at the national level. CASE Judges for the BYU season posters noted that the posters had “excellent minimalistic interpretations of season shows” as well as “strong typographical treatment.” Additionally, judges said the poster’s “consistent color palette added immense impact to the overall look and feel.”
Sue Cunningham, president and CEO of CASE, said in a news release that the 2017 CASE competition was the most competitive year ever with over 3,364 entries and only 366 awards given. But the awards don’t stop there. The season posters will also be included in the September/October issue of Communications Arts magazine. Mendoza entered BYU ARTS Creative pieces into the Communications Arts 2017 design competition, the “most prestigious competition for creativity in graphic design.” Winners receive “important exposure” in print and digital editions of their magazine and on commarts.com. “It is a great honor to be recognized in these competitions. It validates all the hard work and thought that goes into all the things we produce here at BYU ARTS Creative,” Mendoza said. “It is great that the students get recognition for their work and I hope that our clients can see them as designers and not merely as student workers.” Student collaborators who helped to produce the designs:
- Andrew Galloway (BFA Graphic Design 2016) BYU Theatre and Media Arts Season Posters
- Keegan Black (BFA Graphic Design 2017) American Piano Quartet Poster
- Stephanie McAllister (BFA Graphic Design 2017) University Chorale Poster