BYU-Hawaii graphic design Professor Brandon Truscott's poster for his class's ART 333 Type Face Cards exhibit was one of 25 winners of Print Celebrates Design, a national design competition hosted by PRINT magazine. Truscott said he hopes beginners in the graphic design field will see his win as an example of opportunities available in the graphic design community. Print Celebrates Design is "a design competition for your cards, gifts & invitations," according to Amanda Aszman, who posted the winners on PRINT magazine's website. The judge for the competition was the creative director at Etsy, Randy J Hunt. Etsy is a peer-to-peer online market for hand-made goods. "Hunt founded design studio Citizen Scholar and wrote Product Design for the Web and designs prints. Prior to becoming creative director at Etsy, he was recognized as Print New Visual Artist in 2009," wrote Aszman. The winners’ work was revealed January 9th, 2015.Truscott said he hopes his recognition this will help not only students, but also those getting certificates or those who are interested in design "realize that they can be competitive at a national level even if they feel they are from a small place. Even though things we do in class start as small, simple projects, they can be a gateway, if you approach it correctly, to national recognition. Anyone, student or otherwise, can use something like this as an opportunity to open doors." "We often think, 'This is a tough world with all this competition,' but when I've met people, peers at conferences, they are just like you. They do the same things you do when they create stuff and are generally pretty friendly in sharing techniques," said Truscott. Every semester that Truscott teaches an ART 333 class, he said one of the topics is about script and hand letterings. His class designed typography chalk signs with a playing card theme and exhibited them in late October 2014. He designed the advertising poster for the exhibit as the ace of spades, which ultimately won in Print Celebrates Design. "I was looking at the backs of cards, and the fronts, through several different decks. I based the letter forms on two typefaces: Rand Holub's Gillot 291 became the basis of Intertype's Monterey. I modified every little thing as I drew it out," said Truscott. He said "I encourage my students to be active online. Opportunities are rapidly increasing in design." Many of those opportunities come because of digitization and the Internet. "You can get more exposure and connect with a greater audience. So, I submitted mine to be an example." There are 3 million visits annually to the public gallery on printmag.com. For a student that is just starting their career, an award like this can be very advantageous. "It is something you can put on your resume or be a talking point in an interview. Someone might see some of your work they like, click on it, and contact you. It's all about gaining exposure, which can lead to other things," said Truscott, who has personal experience with getting work through such exposure. "People regularly contact me through my website, and ask me to design things" such as book covers, retail display, logos, and T-shirts. uploaded 1/15/15
Writer: Samone Isom ~ Multimedia Journalist
