AOI poster by Graham Erwin

CCAD’s  annual Art of Illustration exhibition, now in its 14th year, is spreading its wings and leaving the nest for a Short North gallery.

The popular exhibition, featuring the best of CCAD student illustrations, is organized entirely by students—from designing promotional posters and selecting jurors to securing sponsors and notifying participants from all nine CCAD majors.

Art of Illustration, opens March 5 at Rivet Gallery, 1200 N. High St. in Columbus, and continues through March 25. An opening awards presentation and reception begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 5.

This year’s show is organized by five Illustration majors: seniors Alex Alvarado and Noel Ang, juniors Lexie Holliday and Brianne Schulze, and sophomore Andrew Thompson. They secured a panel of professional alumni jurors—Linda Bittner (CCAD, ’88), Tim Bowers (CCAD, ’79), Eric Fortune (CCAD, ’99), and Scott Hull (CCAD, ’77)—as well as Illustration Chair C. F. Payne to winnow the 164 entries down to 38. Per tradition, judging took place in Payne’s home.

“Our main focus this year was to get the community more involved,” Schulze said. “In the past, the show was held in one of CCAD’s galleries, so we figured the most obvious solution was to find a gallery off campus.”  The Illustration department is excited about the gallery’s involvement because the student work, opening reception, and awards presentation will be showcased during Columbus’ popular monthly Gallery Hop.

Payne describes the jurying progress as “very regimented and very tough once selections get down to the final level.” All students submit their entries in a digital format. For jurying, the student organizers project the images for the judges to see, then track each round’s selections and tally the overall winners, a process that lasts several hours.

Awards, including prizes from various sponsors, will be presented for best of show as well as first, second and third place. Additionally, five selections identified as “judges favorites” will receive an original work of art from the respective judge.

This year’s sponsors include Chipotle, Cameron Mitchell, Kroger, and R Designs and Printing. CCAD student, a senior majoring in Illustration, designed the 2011 AOI poster.

Payne is pleased that the student-led tradition continues to grow and sees the move to an off-campus gallery as a positive development. “Having AOI in a gallery adds some prestige,” he said.

(click on thumbnail to see full image)

2011 AICUO Scultpure Design Contest Winner

Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD)  junior Caleb Boller is the winner of the 2011 AICUO Sculpture Design Contest. The design contest is hosted by the Association for Independent Colleges & Universities of Ohio (AICUO) as a supplement to the organization’s Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts. The winning design is used to make the awards presented at the awards reception.

For the next step of the Sculpture Design Competition, Caleb will be working with a professional local sculptor (to be announced) to bring his pieces to life. Attend the 2011 AICUO Awards Reception on April 13 for the unveiling of the final sculptures.

Boller is an  Industrial Design major and focuses much of his energy on ceramics. Ever since a high school program that he took in his hometown of Roanoke, IN, Caleb has had an interest in all things 3D. A renowned CCAD ceramics instructor, Bill Hunt, drew Caleb to the college. Boller is the recipient of a silver portfolio Scholastics scholarship and a CCAD scholarship.

View more of Caleb’s work on his Coroflot account.

Three CCAD students are nominated for an Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts.

NOTE: this news was first announced in the blog post written for AICUO by Noel Ang, a CCAD senior majoring in Illustration, who is an AICUO intern and art awards coordinator.