Magazine contest winner a USU grad
Combining the classic symbol of the “have a nice day” smiley face and the LOL emoticon of today’s technology age, Kyle Harris created an award-winning cover for PRINT magazine.
“I wanted something that graphic designers could relate to,” said Harris, a USU graduate. “I just remember thinking that I should take a traditional graphic symbol and give it a contemporary feel.”
Putting the traditional and contemporary symbols together was clever enough to convince the judges of PRINT magazine’s annual design competition to make Harris one of the nine honorable mentions in the competition.
Robert Winward, a faculty member of the art department at USU, said, “Kyle’s design proves that graphic designers are not just cake decorators. Anybody can learn to design pretty‚ but not everybody can learn to design smart. While we’re interested in developing students’ visual aesthetics, we’re also interested in developing students’ conceptual problem-solving skills. The judges were struck by the simple power of taking a worn-out cliché like the smiley face and giving it a contemporary twist.”
Harris says the design was a reflection of his personality.
“I’m a sarcastic person and I was poking fun at the design. I thought it was clever,” Harris said.
PRINT magazine caters to graphic designers. It is used as a showcase for designers’ works, and also has articles about graphic design. The cover design competition has been a part of the magazine for the past 40 years.
Nadene Steinhoff, a graphic designer, said, “This is an incredible honor. PRINT magazine is like Nature or Science journal is to scientists. It’s the international design journal.”
Gary Kiger, the dean of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, said, “This is a very high-profile competition. With a circulation of 85,000, this is one of the premiere publications of the graphic design and advertising industry. That our students continue to win international design competitions is evidence of the quality of our program and students.”
The competition is held internationally and had 264 student entrants. Thirteen winners were named, and Harris was one of them. Student entrants for the competition ranged from around the world, including Beijing, Ljubljan, Istanbul, Slovenia and schools scattered across the United States. Five students were picked from USU’s advanced design II class to compete.
Several requirements must be met in order to compete. For example, contestants had to be in their senior year. Entrants must also be attending a university with a design department or a design school. It takes one year for the magazine to judge the entries and put the winners in the magazine.
“It takes time to get all the entries in and they have to get the magazine put together,” Harris said. “There are five judges [that vary in profession throughout the graphic design field], and they change every year.”
Harris is currently working as a successful graphic designer for V-Motion, an e-commerce Web developer.
“It’s nice to be getting paid to do it and not just a grade,” Harris said. “It’s great to be in the real world and doing projects in real-life situations.”
Harris wasn’t always sure that he was going to be a graphic designer, but his love for art led him into it. He didn’t decide to go into that field until he was in school at USU.
“I’ve always had an interest in art. When I first came to Utah State I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but not specifically,” Harris said. “I was talking to a guy whom I worked with and he told me what you can do with graphic design and I was like, ‘wow!'”
Harris’ traditional, yet contemporary design can be found in the March/April edition of PRINT magazine on the shelves at the Utah State Bookstore, Borders and Hastings. To get more information on the competition or the design program contact Winward at 797-1394.
-rbarlow@cc.usu.edu