Communication Design Students Win ADDYs

Two students and one recent graduate of Buffalo State’s communication design program took home awards from the Advertising Club of Buffalo’s 2016 ADDY Awards in March.

Senior Megan Sweeney won two gold and two silver awards; Chad Hornberger,’15, won a silver award; and junior Chris Vickers received an honorable mention in the Don Nichols Scholarship poster competition.

The students’ work was produced in advertising, graphic design, and visual communication courses and included a rebranding campaign for a resort, a set of fire safety brochures, an event promotion campaign, a poster advertising a reptile exhibit, and a direct mail piece for a company wanting to reconnect with previous customers. Vickers’ honorable mention award was for a poster based on the theme for the Nichol’s competition, “Election 2016.”

“The students submit their work to the ADDY competition themselves,” said Stan Friesen, associate professor of design. “We let them know it’s coming up and encourage them to enter. It’s a great opportunity to have their work seen by industry professionals. In general, students who enter have done really well. One student has two companies interested in hiring him as a result of attending the annual portfolio review, also hosted by the Advertising Club of Buffalo.”

The ADDY Awards is the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, attracting more than 50,000 entries every year in local ADDY competitions. The mission of the ADDY competition is to recognize and reward creative excellence in the art of advertising.

Communication (graphic) design is the largest program in the visual arts at Buffalo State; with nearly 100 students studying advertising design, multimedia, print, and illustration. Graduates have been hired at major corporations, advertising agencies, and graphic design studios including NBC Universal, Verizon Wireless, Fisher-Price, Yahoo, Xerox, and many others.