Tyler students clinch prizes for design work

At Tyler School of Art’s Interact 7.0 event, four students received prizes for their work in Web site design, graphic design and animation.

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7.0 winners left to right: Brian Cassidy (Junior, animation), Matylda Biedron (Junior, Web site), Megs Fulton (Senior, Web site), Tom LeBeau (Senior, animation) (Sergei Blair/TTN)

Four students from Tyler School of Art received prizes April 22 for best work in interactive graphic design at the Interact 7.0, an annual event hosted by the Tyler’s Graphic and Interactive Design department.

The five-judge panel consisted of members from various graphic design organizations from around the nation who reviewed all 65 student entries and in the end presented the best 24 final presentations.

Roughly 100 students, parents and faculty members had a chance to see the work done by students that included websites and short digital animations.

“With each year the work just gets better and better because students are getting more technically savvy,” said event organizer and associate professor in graphic interactive design Dermot MacCormack.

MacCormack said this year’s event turned out to be more successful from all others in the past because of the amount of work entered into competition and it was also the first time the event incorporated a section on motion graphics and animation.

The students who won prizes in four separate categories were: junior Web site, Matylda Biedron, senior Web site, Megs Fulton, junior animation, Brian Cassidy and senior animation, Tom LeBeau.

Each winner received free tuition (books included) for a creative design workshop where they will be taught to expand their skills and further develop the knowledge of graphic design software.

The prizes were distributed by Joseph Rinaldi, an agency recruiter for Aquent, an international talent placement company dedicated to seeking out best artists and spotlighting their works to world-leading markets and corporations.

MacCormack said students used their skills in advance flash design, cascading style sheets and even HTML coding to create their work. All works presented were completed throughout many months and several semesters.

“Trying to keep up with technology today is impossible, so what we’re trying to do with students is training then into becoming good thinkers and students who like to learn,” MacCormack said. “I tell my students that stuff they learn today may in five years be totally different because the technology is changing so much,” he said.

MacCormack and members of the graphic design department started Interact seven years ago because the department wanted to highlight and promote the interactive program.

Originally, all the work was created by students using older technologies.

Megs Fulton, winner of this year’s senior Web site titled “Rainforest,” said she had spent more than 50 hours during this semester to complete her project. She described her site, which is geared toward younger children, as an informational and fun resource.

The site is rich in flash and CSS content also has voice-overs for different actions to take while browsing it.

“I had to bribe my two little cousins with ice cream for them to do the voice-overs” she said.

“We do instill basic fundamental design principals and I think that it shows in the work of our students,” MacCormack said. “We just use technology to make things happen.”

Sergei Blair can be reached at sergei.blair@temple.edu.

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