February 27, 2004

Troy State University Students Excel in Advertising Competition

Troy State University graphic design students excelled in the 44 th annual Montgomery Advertising Federation ADDY competition held at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts on Friday, Feb. 20.

The ADDY's is considered to be Oscar Night for television, radio, print and new media advertising.

For the third consecutive year, TSU students walked away with all the Student Achievement Awards.

The biggest win of the night for TSU came when Blake Branch received a Gold ADDY for his “Antigone” poster created for the TSU Department of Speech and Theatre.

Projects designed by Steven Williams of Ozark won Best Design, Carol McDonald of Prattville won Best Concept and Troy Johnson of Luverne won Best Wit.

TSU students also won in professional categories. Jayne Richards of Enterprise , Karl Bryant of Phenix City and Allison Smith of Tampa , Fla. won Silver ADDY Awards for producing the “Into the Woods” poster created for the TSU Department of Speech and Theatre.

Jayne Richards also received a Silver ADDY for her cover design created for Southern States Communication Association.

Silver ADDYs were presented to students Alexandra Senecal of Troy , Collin Magonigal of Ozark, Sharee Fincher of Loxley and Steven Schmidt of Troy for the Natural One Insect Discouragement packaging, created for Johnson Labs of Troy, LLC.

Lindsay Herron, a recent TSU graduate, won a Silver ADDY for her senior thesis project, a poster campaign for the Save-A-Life Foundation.

“Producing this year's program has been a real labor of love,” said Ed Noriega, chair of the event and director of the Center for Design Technology and Industry at Troy State University .

“It was exciting to see increased participation this year from large and small agencies,” said Jerry Johnson, chair of the Department of Art and Design and chair of the Montgomery Advertising Federation. “What excites me even more is that two additional universities were represented in the student categories: Alabama State University and Alabama A&M University . Advertising, design and broadcast are critical aspects of our economy and I'm proud to see such synergy between the professionals and the students of South Alabama .