A team of students in The University of Southern Mississippi Department of Art and Design recently received a Student Gold ADDY Award from the seventh “Deep South” District of the American Advertising Federation.

The team, which received the award for its design of a promotional poster for the department’s open house event April 4, was composed of three students:  Elizabeth Maloy of Long Beach; Bradley Jackson of Mobile, Ala.; and Laura Morgan of Hattiesburg.

Maloy, who coordinated the team, says she was filled with a mixture of surprise and excitement when she heard the judges had awarded the poster.

“We believed that we had a great piece, but I don’t think anyone really expected that it would win a Gold ADDY,” said Maloy, a Southern Miss presidential scholar. “This is definitely an exhilarating experience that we will carry with us forever.”

Like a diamond in the rough, the team’s poster was the result of hours of designing and refining as the group continuously tweaked the graphics and type until its aesthetic distinction was finally discovered.

The team had originally designed the poster as a class project in Page Layout, a graphic design course taught by faculty member Ping Xu. After working exhaustively on the project until 4 a.m. on the day of the final draft, the fatigued young artists were taken aback by Xu’s critique.

“After all the work we had put into it, we just knew that Mr. Xu was going to love it,” said Jackson. “But his response to our poster was, ‘This is D-level work … it’s terrible.’”

Motivated by their professor’s sharp critique, the students trashed their original concept and started a new poster from scratch just days before the final art was due.

The new poster, according to Maloy, employed a simpler design style, making better use of elements such as texture, shape, white space and typography to create a strong alluring image that melded harmoniously with the poster’s informational objective.

Xu obviously agreed with this assessment as the poster was chosen to be the official open house poster for the department and was sent to several hundred high schools in the southeastern United States to promote the open house and invite prospective art students to the Southern Miss campus.

“A successful poster will attack you, then attracts you,” said Xu about the quality of the piece. “This poster could be a unique signature piece for our Department of Art and Design and a stamp or a footprint on our year of the 2008 calendar. It won because it delivered an immediate impact.” 

After winning the class competition locally at Southern Miss, the group decided to take it to another level by entering the poster into the Mississippi Gulf Coast Advertising Federation’s Student ADDY Award Competition, where it garnered a Silver ADDY. 

From there, the students entered it into the regional ADDY competition of the “Deep South” District of the American Advertising Association, where it was awarded a Gold Student ADDY. The students plan to enter the poster in the national ADDY competition later this year.

The American Advertising Federation, headquartered in Washington, D.C., represents 50,000 professionals in the advertising industry. The AAF has a national network of 210 advertising clubs and connects the industry with an academic base through its 210 college chapters.

For more information on the graphic communication program at Southern Miss, call the Department of Art and Design at 601.266.4972.

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About The University of Southern Mississippi
The University of Southern Mississippi, founded in 1910, is a comprehensive doctoral and research-extensive university fulfilling its mission of being a leading university in engaging and empowering individuals to transform lives and communities. In a tradition of leadership for student development, Southern Miss is educating a 21st century work force providing intellectual capital, cultural enrichment and innovation to Mississippi and the world. Southern Miss is located in Hattiesburg, Miss, with an additional campus and teaching and research sites on the Mississippi Gulf Coast; further information is found at www.usm.edu.