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STARKVILLE, Miss.- The students in the graphic design program at Mississippi State University have had a tremendous year, receiving numerous honors and awards at prestigious design exhibitions across the country. These shows varied in scope, from local competitions to regional, national and even international recognition. The competitions included the Arkansas State University's Art Director's Club (ADC) Regional Student Competition as well as the Greater Tuscaloosa Area Advertising Federation's ADDY Awards, the Dallas Society of Visual Communication (DSVC) National 2nd Annual Student Show, the AIGA-Ole Miss/AIGA Memphis Design Week Competition 2006, 2006 Real Show and the first annual AIGA Mississippi State Student group Southern Student Invitational. MSU students have received high honors with the acceptance of their work into the highly competitive 2005 International HOW Magazine Self-Promotional Design Annual in addition to Creative Convocation magazine.

MSU students dominated the Arkansas State University's Art Director's Club (ADC) Regional Student Competition  in the categories of advertising and design, business identity, package design, typographic orientation, illustration, brochure and multi-media design. Several  Best-In-Show awards were given to Elisabeth Harris, Joanna Baker and Jamie Rahaim.

In this year's ADDY Awards, which begins at the regional level with the Tuscaloosa ADDYs, MSU brought home twelve silver and one Best-of-Show award with the following students winning Gold ADDYs: Janna Demoruelle, Kristen Ley, Brent Lape and Lindsay Noblin. The winning pieces advance up to the district level to compete against schools in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana. Two students placed at the district level and their work then advances to the national competition.

In the highly competitive Dallas Society of Visual Communication (DSVC) National Annual Student Show, which has received  over 2,000 submissions in the past, only 111 entries were accepted this year. MSU students Caroline Crawford and Jamie Rahaim, one of whose pieces won a Best of Category award, created four of these entries.

In the 2006 Real Show, held in Washington D.C., only 29 entries were accepted from the 274 received, three of which represented the MSU graphic design program. Jamie Rahaim received a silver award and Marcelle Okula received a merit award.

Nineteen of 41 pieces accepted into the AIGA-Ole Miss/AIGA Memphis Design Week Competition 2006  were submitted by students in the MSU graphic  design department, giving State the largest representation from among all participating universities. Eleven MSU students were recognized, with Joanna Baker, Janna Demoruelle and Wesley Stuckey winning a Judges' Award for their joint ad campaign.

Finally, the newly formed AIGA Mississippi State Student group held its first ever Mississippi State AIGA Southern Student Invitational this year.  With almost 400 entries from seven different states, including entries from Creative Circus, Auburn University, LSU, Memphis College of Art, University of North Texas, The Portfolio Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Mississippi State University. Mississippi State University has 25 students represented in the show, with Jamie Rahaim, Meagan Cox, Joanna Baker, Kelsey Moran and Matt Ladner winning best in their categories.

Of special note, in the 2005 International HOW Magazine Self-Promotional Design Annual, MSU's Darcy Hanson's work was chosen as a "Student Merit Winner" and published in the October issue. There were over 3000 entries, with 7 student designs chosen for publication. MSU Graphic Design student work has been featured in this HOW competition for the last 3 years.

Jamie Burwell Mixon, Graphic Design Emphasis Coordinator, summarizes the students' performance: "This year has been incredible for the Graphic Design Program at MSU. Our students are continuing the decade long tradition of major success in significant design competitions. We are the largest emphasis area in the Department with 5 award winning Graphic Design faculty devoted to educating the individual design student."

For more detailed information about specific awards recipients or the graphic design program at Mississippi State University please contact Jamie Mixon at jmixon@caad.msstate.edu.

For general inquiries contact Kay DeMarsche, Department Head at 662-325-2970.