Cristina Moore, a senior graphic design student, won big at the ADDY Awards in Oklahoma City on February 20.
The ADDY Awards, hosted by the American Advertising Federation, is the largest competition in the advertising industry in the nation. It receives over 5 million entries annually from across the nation. This year, 13 of those entries came from Cristina Moore.
“I entered thirteen pieces and won seven. Three bronze, three silver, and one gold. So I think it was a good return investment,” Moore says.
The ADDY’s are a tiered competition, so students must first enter their pieces in local competitions, usually held in one city. Then, winning entries move on to the regional competitions, and then finally to nationals.
“They usually have only one competition for Tulsa, but the city couldn’t host an Addy’s Awards this year, so I entered into Oklahoma City’s ADDY’s Awards. It was their 50th anniversary event, and it was their biggest ever.”
About the increased competition in Oklahoma City, Moore says “I was competing against students from the entire state of Oklahoma. And I was the only student from TU that entered.”
Moore didn’t let this intimidate her, though. Instead, she took it as motivation to challenge herself. She describes, “It was fun to stack up my work against students from bigger programs. It’s like, oh well, we’ll see if I do well against bigger competition, and it ended up working out.”
One of Moore’s pieces, a logo she crafted for a local non-profit, even won Gold. “Pathways was a logo I made for Pathways Adult Learning Center of Tulsa, which is a non-profit here in Tulsa,” says Moore. “[Pathways] is a support system for adults with developmental disabilities. They have these art camps and programs where people with learning disabilities can make pieces of artwork or sell things, so that they can make a living and become independent adults.”
Moore’s logo captures the essence of Pathways’ mission. She notes, “They didn’t like their previous logo, so they asked for a rebrand and a new look. They wanted something that emoted their company and gave a strong impression of its Christian values.”
Describing the thought process behind the logo, Moore says, “I made a preliminary sketch and I told them that this letter A in the name Pathways can be this human figure walking on a path. The T is supposed to represent him walking towards the cross. They really liked it.”
About her design process, Moore says, “I hand-drew [the logo]. I’m a big fan of hand-lettering. I started last summer after an internship where I made friends with this other designer who had some hand-lettering in his portfolio. And I was like ‘Huh, I want to try that out.’ And now it’s just become something that I really like doing. Now I try to incorporate hand-lettering into most of the things I make.”
Pathways is one of many non-profits that Moore and other students provide free artwork for.
“I made that logo through Third Floor Design, which is a student-owned graphic-design agency here at TU.”
Housed within the school of art and run by the head of the graphic design department, Teresa Valero, Third Floor Design gives students the opportunity to produce pro-bono promotional materials for local nonprofits, charities and social service agencies.
Moore describes, “It’s a class that you can only take with Teresa Valero’s permission. She picks the best students in the program, and we’re the designers for these non-profits and charities.”
“[Valero] has non-profit connections and charities who go through her, and then she submits their design requests to us. They get free student work from us, so we’re helping the Tulsa community and we’re also building our portfolios at the same time.”
Moore also does pro-bono work for 108 Contemporary, a non-profit art gallery in the Brady Arts District and partner of Third Floor Design. She won an Addy for her work there, as well.
“I made a brochure for 108 Contemporary that I got a Silver for. It highlights the 2016-2017 exhibits, so people can see which ones are up and coming and which ones they want to attend.”
Much like Third Floor Design, the ADDY Awards give students and aspiring advertisers the opportunity to set themselves apart from the crowd.
About the ADDY’s, Moore remarks, “It’s a celebration of the advertising industry. Agencies recognize up-and-coming student talent at these competitions and extend hiring opportunities to the students who won awards. I want to go into advertising, so [the ADDY’s] are a great opportunity to get ahead.”
With all of Moore’s hard work, she has certainly gotten ahead.
“I got a summer internship with the Richards Group, which is the largest independent advertising agency in the US. I’ll be working for RBMM, which is their offshoot design firm. They do all of the logos, branding, illustrations, everything that I enjoy doing.”
