Cincinnati State students win five Gold, six Silver ADDY Awards

February 24, 2011

Students from the Multimedia Information Design (MID) programs at Cincinnati State won five Gold and six Silver ADDY® Awards presented last weekend by the Cincinnati Ad Club.

Cincinnati State students have dominated the local student ADDY awards since first entering the competition in 2007. In the past five years Cincinnati State students have won Best of Show in Cincinnati three times, Best of Show at the district level in 2008, and a Gold ADDY in the 2008 national competition.

The 2011 ADDY Award celebration was held Feb. 19 at The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington, KY. Entries were judged by advertising professionals from Baltimore and Houston.

The Cincinnati State ADDY award recipients include:

• The team of Kevin Adams-Jones, Kevin Meyer, and Ryan Iulg, all Audio/Video Production majors, who earned four ADDY awards for work on behalf of CincyDance, an educational program of the Cincinnati Ballet that provides dance training at no cost for third grade students.
• One Gold ADDY award and two Silver ADDY awards recognized television commercials produced for CincyDance and a second Gold ADDY recognized mixed media campaign materials produced for CincyDance.
• Adams-Jones, Meyer, and Iulg prepared their ADDY award-winning work in the MID Capstone class in Fall 2010.
• The team of Lorelei Buescher, Nicholas Fields, and Dariea Shorter, all Graphic Design majors, received a Silver ADDY award for "Chrysalis Interactive Stationery," material they created during the Spring 2010 MID Capstone course.
• Jillian Ball, a Graphic Design major, received a Gold ADDY award for a logo created as part of Cincinnati State’s Digital Studio 2 class.
• Sarah Haun, a Graphic Design major, received a Gold ADDY award and a Silver ADDY award for photography. She received a second Silver ADDY award for a logo created as part of the Digital Studio 2 class.
• Ron Smedley, a Graphic Design major, received a Gold ADDY for a poster created in the Digital Studio 1 class.
• Dariea Shorter, a Graphic Design major, received a Silver ADDY for an illustration titled "Happiness is Hazardous."

Several Cincinnati State graduates were recognized with ADDY awards in the professional competition.

• Caleb Halter, a 2009 graduate who works at Lightborne (a Cincinnati-based design firm) was the Designer/Animator on a team that received a Gold ADDY award for an audio/video sales presentation for sports apparel company TYR.
• Jeremy Whitcomb, a 2007 graduate employed by Barking Fish Lounge, earned a Gold ADDY award for work as Compositing Artist on a cinema advertising piece for P&G entitled "Unrepeat Your Day." Whitcomb also worked as Director of Photography on the movie "4192: The Crowning of the Hit King," which received a Gold ADDY award for its advertising campaign.
• Rachel Taylor and Chad Miller, both 2009 graduates working at Mike Zitt, Inc., were Art Directors on a team that won a Silver ADDY award for advertising industry self-promotion materials prepared for UNLO/shopbop. Company owner Mike Zitt is a 1995 graduate of Cincinnati State’s Graphic Communications program.

In addition to Cincinnati State, student entries in the local competition represented the AIC College of Design, the University of Cincinnati, and Gateway Community and Technical College.

All student Gold ADDY award winners in the local competition are automatically entered in the district competition, which includes colleges and universities in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Silver award winners may also compete at the district level if they wish.

With more than 60,000 entries annually from professionals and students, the ADDY Awards are the world's largest and arguably toughest advertising competition. The American Advertising Federation, a not-for-profit industry association, conducts the ADDY Awards through its 200 member advertising clubs and 15 districts. It is the only creative awards program administered by the advertising industry for the industry.