SDSU’s graphic design students had a strong presence at the 2014 ADDY Awards Night March 15 in Sioux Falls. Entries from SDSU students won “Best of Show,” and swept all three “Best of Categories” in student competition.

The Addy’s are a design competition that designers can enter their work in and the winner either receives a gold or silver ADDY. The ADDY award logo and trophy is a stylized “Star A.” It is a national competition, but it starts locally and then the winners go to regionals. The winners of regionals then go to nationals.  The competition has a specific section for students but isn’t exclusively for them, the majority of entries come from advertising agencies in the area said graphic design student Allyson Klock.

The ADDY awards are given for excellence in the advertising community, said Randy Clark, graphic design associate professor. Students get involved by the department asking them to submit their student work to the competition. They register online and then take their physical entries to Sioux Falls to the South Dakota Advertising Federation office.

“There is a fee for each entry so there is a slight risk in entering, you hope the work you enter would be good enough to pay off in the end,” Klock said.

The entries can be anything that has elements of advertising. This can include something that has been done in Photoshop, a branding project, a poster or a packaging project — any type of student work is accepted.

“Usually the ads are classwork,” Clark said.

An entry must be a design or advertising piece. Design pieces have a place in the competition, but if they don’t successfully advertise anything, it is unlikely that they will make it past districts to nationals, said senior graphic design student Michael Mazourek.

There are two components to the ADDY’s – a professional competition and a student competition.  The panel of judges are usually industry professionals that come and judge the student category.

“What makes it so valuable is the people that are judging the work are the professionals that work in the ad community,” Clark said.  “They are looking at student work, which is a great way to promote students and our university.”

SDSU students won nine out of 10 ADDY’s, Clark said. 

“Every year that I have competed, students from around the state put work in, but SDSU students seem to win the most,” Mazourek said.

According to Clark, entrants are a mix of all students who want to enter, although the graphic design students win the majority of the awards.

“Addy’s are an important vehicle for students to get their work out there,” Clark said. “They are like the Oscars for advertising.”

Klock entered a poster into the collateral section of the competition. It was a typographically based conceptual poster that was created for a Graphic Design II class. The idea was to promote a concept or idea with a heavy part of the design being based on type.

“I only submitted one and it was the one that got a Gold ADDY and actually won Collateral Best of Show,” Klock said.

The design that Klock came up with was inspired by her faith. She attends a Christian ministry called the Navigators on campus.

“My piece is called Make Him Known and talks about the idea of outreaching to the nations of the world that don’t know about Christ, specifically a section of the world called the 10/40 window that has a very low amount of reached people groups,” Klock said.

Last year Mazourek submitted five ADDY’s and won one gold and two silvers. This year, Mazourek submitted four works, and won four golds. Three of the golds and all of the trophies he won were within team projects.

“It is an honor to win an ADDY, and it is hugely beneficial to receive an award in front of all the advertising and design agencies of the eastern South Dakotan region. The agencies see your work and they have the chance to meet you, which is a huge recruiting tool for them,” Mazourek said.

Bridgette Nelson, Nick Olafsen, Jaylynne Martinez, and Mazourek created a commercial for Brookings Arts Council that won a gold ADDY and won Best of Class: Television.

Mazourek also worked with Sara Kohles, an Augustana Business student. The pair won Best of Class: Elements and Best of Show for their “Rise of the Bikes” infographic. They also won Best of Class: Online advertising for their “SD Social Media” infographic.

The last Gold ADDY Mazourek won was for an advertising campaign he designed for a Bath and Body brand he created.

Mazourek and Kohles’ infographic named “SD Social Media” won a gold in Minneapolis during the District 8 competition and will be moving on to Nationals.

Jordan Studanski of SDSU won a silver in the ADDY’s competition for a poster and Ally Klock won a gold ADDY in the competition for her poster “Make Him Known”. She also won best of Class: Collateral for the poster.

“There were three Best of Class trophies and one Best of Show trophy given in the competition, so SDSU was well represented,” Mazourek said.

“This is big — we are very proud of our students and we think we have an amazing program,” Clark said.

There were also three University Center students that won ADDY’s as well. 

“We are proud of all of our students, both on the SDSU campus and in Sioux Falls,” Clark said.