CCAD's design group, alumni & partners clean up on awards

It's been quite a design awards season for Columbus College of Art & Design, especially for the college's Design Group—a student-staffed, in-house design agency.

Columbus Society of Communicating Arts held it's annual Creative Best awards on Nov. 17 and CCAD was well represented. Several local agencies that employ CCAD alumni took home coveted awards, including EdgeCase, which won an Award of Excellence in the Interactive category for JRubyConf.com which was designed by 2011 grad Justine Arreche. Pallavi Sen, a fine arts senior, took home two merit awards from the Student category.

CCAD's Design Group earned a Best in Category award in the Motion Design category for its Happy New Year video. The winning team included Media Studies major (and last year's Outstanding Senior) Taehee Lee (CCAD 2011) who came up with the concept and directed the video; videographer, media studies junior Alex Trimpe, CCAD Creative Director Lindsay Kronmiller, and Editorial Director Laura Bidwa.

CCAD's partnership with local brand agency Ologie on the Masters of Design, Senior Fashion Show event collateral earned both organizations Awards of Excellence in the Print category for the invitation and the show catalog. The winning team was comprised of, from CCAD, Arreche, Bidwa, Danielle Deley (CCAD, Advertising & Graphic Design, 2011), Kronmiller, and Simone Noronha (CCAD, Advertising & Graphic Design, 2011) and from Ologie, Andy Hayes and Kelly Ruoff.

“These projects not only showcase our student work to the outside world, but also allow our students to build the relationships and business experience that will place them above the rest upon graduation,” said Kronmiller.

CCAD's Fashion Show print collateral also earned awards from American Graphic Design, which awarded CCAD four certificates of excellence for branding initiatives, including print and environmental graphics.

In addition to the Fashion Show invitation, the college received awards for the Art Walk (environmental graphic's in CCAD's Canzani Center), the Viewbook, and a positioning piece, titled Think. Do.

Both the Viewbook and the Fashion Show invite were done through the collaboration with Ologie, which is owned by board of trustee member and alumna Bev Bethge (CCAD 1982-1986). The company is an award-winning branding agency that serves national and international clients. The Design Group students worked closely with the agency to complete both pieces gaining mentorship while producing award-winning print materials.

The Art Walk panels were designed by Design Group, with the help of Chute Gerdeman, another award-winning strategic brand and design firm in Columbus (which also took home awards from CSCA on Thursday).

“’When prospective students, parents, and the general public encounter our materials, they are seeing student work,” said Kronmiller. "It is a great testament to the talent and ability of our students."

The American Graphic Design Awards are open to all businesses and partnerships in the graphic design community. There were more than 8,000 entries and only 15 percent were then recognized with an Awards Certificate of Excellence.

Judges for the CSCA Creative Best awards were Brigitta Bungard, assistant creative director at the Museum of Modern Arts in-house design studio in NYC; Joe Marianek, associate partner at Pentagram, an international design consultancy; and Ken Visocky O'Grady, an associate professor at Kent State University.