Photos can tell us so much – emotion, time, location and more. Sometimes it’s very hard to convey something specific, even a couple words with a photo. In this case, the goal was to illustrate a specific saying using a few photos and a lot of Photoshop work. The sophomore Graphic Design and Communications students did a great job, can you guess the sayings?
The North Dakota chapter of the American Advertising Federation, AAFND or AdFed, recently held its annual awards show – the Addys – in Fargo. BSC Graphic Design and Communications students competed in the juried competition against other students of two and four year institutions represented in the district.
This year, seven BSC sophomore students won nine awards for their outstanding demonstrations in design and photography. MiKayla Pfaff won a Gold Addy for a digital illustration of a gold pocket watch. Josh Schaefbauer won a gold for his studio photography piece entitled ‘Let’s Drink’. Parker Bachmeier won two Silver Addys for his personal stationery design and a poster design for the BSC Theatrical Production of ‘The Foreigner’. Brandon Veen won a Silver Addy for his poster design for the BSC Theatrical Production of ‘How I Learned to Drive’. Aaron Bechtle won a Silver Addy for his studio photograph entitled ‘Coffee Delight’. Jessica Edinger won two silvers for her studio photographs entitled ‘Spice Your Life’ and ‘Drink’. Larree Janssen won a Silver Addy for her photography ‘Dragonfly’.
All Gold Addy Award winners are automatically forwarded for judging at the District 8 Addy Competition that will take place in Green Bay, WI on March 23.
The GDC graduating class of 2017 won a Gold Addy for the sixth edition of PROOF Magazine, an all student designed and produced publication. Since 2012, PROOF magazine has collected three Addy Awards. The seventh edition of PROOF is currently in production.
Several Graphic Design and Communications graduates were also part of award-winning projects this year. Rob Burke, Jamie Vetter, Caleb Hauff, Nathan Long and Jade Neumann were among the alumni honored with Addys as well. Neumann, a 2017 graduate, was awarded two Silver Addys. One for the ‘Shortcuts’ Poster Design and the other for ‘Create’, an illustration. Long, a 2016 graduate now attending Moorhead State University, shared in a Gold Addy for a web site design for ‘The Fargo Project’. This entry also received the only ‘Best of Digital’ Student Award. Burke, 2009 graduate and owner of Yarn Media, received 3 Gold Addys and 1 Silver for his cinematography and editing work. Vetter, also a 2009 graduate, netted four Addys – a Silver with co-creator of the Shortcuts Poster, Jade Neumann, and three Addys as part of his work with Agency Mabu. Hauff, 2014 graduate and co-founder of Threefold, shared in over ten awards – four Gold Addys, five Silver Addys and the only Best of Show given this year.
Congratulations to all award winners and all of the students that entered. Because the Addy is universally recognized by the creative industry as a signature achievement, receiving one is great validation for the professional and creative work produced by our GDC students.
MiKayla Pfaff’s digital illustration of a gold pocket watch received a Gold Addy.
Josh Schaefbauer’s Moscow Mule in ‘Let’s Drink’ captured a Gold Addy.
Parker Bachmeier’s personal stationery package received a Silver Addy.
Bachmeier also received a Silver Addy for his poster for ‘The Foreigner’.
Brandon Veen received a Silver Addy for his ‘How I Learned to Drive’ play poster.
A Silver Addy was awarded to Aaron Bechtle for his ‘Coffee Delight’ photo.
Jessica Edinger won a Silver Addy for her ‘Spice Your Life’ photo.
Larree Janssen’s up-close-and-personal photo of this dragonfly won a Silver Addy.
Nathan Long (2016 graduate), won a Gold and Best of Student, Digital for his collaboration on ‘The Fargo Project’ web site.
The Silver Addy Award-winning Shortcuts poster was a joint effort between Jamie Vetter (2009 graduate) and Jade Neumann (2017 graduate).
Jade Neumann’s illustrated ‘Create’ design won a Silver Addy.
I don’t know how I missed this shortcut for so many years, but it has made my photo editing workflow a little smoother.
I really like the tools in the camera raw editor for photo toning and color work, but I don’t like the way that it handles cloning and the lack of layers. The drawback with the raw editor for me has been that after I click the Open Image button at the bottom of the screen, my raw editing tools are gone.
There is a way to go back and forth between the raw editor and Photoshop seamlessly. With the raw file open in the raw editor, hold down the Shift key, the Open Image button will change to Open Object. The raw image is opened in Photoshop, but it is a Smart Object, you can modify the image in Photoshop and double clicking it will allow changes to made in the raw editor again. You can go back and forth between the Photoshop and the raw editor as often as necessary.
Unfortunately, if you do your raw editing in Lightroom, I don’t believe there is a way to work back and forth.
Students are working with layer masks in Photoshop to conceal areas of an image and create subtle effects – like reflections and trailing shadows.
This project started with collecting this stunning piece of plastic dress-up jewelry from an instructor’s child, then shooting a couple quick photos in the studio with the students.
After downloading the images, the students worked as a group, with the instructor, to remove the background and create the reflection. Most of the work was accomplished with simple layer masks. Plastic jewelry has never looked so good.
With the right Photoshop techniques, this 25-cent ring looks like it could easily be worth a dollar.
It’s like Christmas in the Graphic Design and Communications Department.
Mike Lalonde handled the purchasing and set up of four new Nikon D90 cameras for department use.
Two of the four new D90 cameras