[331] Cobb's Best of Show Leads MTSU's Parade of Student ADDY Award Winners

Release date: Feb. 25, 2011

News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
Art Dept./Graphic Design contact: Jean Nagy, 615-898-2963 or jnagy@mtsu.edu

Cobb’s Best of Show Leads MTSU’s Parade of Student ADDY Award Winners

(MURFREESBORO) — Five gold awards – including Best of Show by senior Stefanie Cobb – and two silvers led to a spectacular night for the MTSU art department at the 2011 Nashville Student ADDY Awards Feb. 22 in Nashville.
Cobb, a native of Anderson, S.C., now living in Hermitage, Tenn., earned a Gold ADDY and Best of Show for her “American Ladies Feline Fellowship Society Annual Report” entry.
“It’s a fairly involved piece,” says Cobb, who will graduate May 7. “I made everything from the copy to the illustrations. I tend to really get into the details of a project, so there are a lot of little elements that I wanted to include to make the piece really fun, like the cat jingle bell along the spine. It was a lot of work, but I had a lot of fun creating it.”
Cobb, a past president of AIGA (the professional association for design), also earned a Silver Student ADDY for a mixed media campaign titled “Streets in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of Brutalist Architecture.”
“If I had a whole class of Stefanies, it would be a dream world,” says Noel Lorson, associate professor. “She’s creative, talented and dedicated. Basically, her passion for design is what helps her find time to make every project successful.
“When I graded the annual report that won her the Gold Student ADDY and Best of Show awards, I wrote, ‘This project will get you any job you want.’ It had fabulous design, illustration, photography and copy writing.”
In addition to Cobb, the following received Student ADDY awards:
• Cody Newman of Nashville, who earned a gold in the television category for his submission titled “Ten to Two”;
• Eric Pavol of Franklin, Tenn., who earned a gold for an interactive website submission titled “A Field Guide to Benches in Nashville”;
• Nathan Henris of Franklin, who received a gold for a mixed media campaign titled “Vintage Walls Museum Exhibit”;
• Whitney Mortimer of Chattanooga, who captured a gold for a package design titled “The Weather Witch Doctor Voodoo Doll”; and
• Michael Slattery of Goodlettsville, Tenn., who earned a silver for an animation titled “The Beasties.”
In the Nashville Student ADDY Awards, MTSU competes against students from Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville; Watkins College of Art, Design & Film; O’More College of Design; Nossi College of Art; and other public and private colleges.
“The Student ADDY competition gives our students a chance to experience competition for their design work and see how their work stacks up from the other regional universities,” says Jean Nagy, department chair and associate professor. “The MTSU Department of Art is proud that our students’ work stacks up to the scrutiny of design professionals within the American Advertising Federation-Nashville.”
This marks the first of three tiers of competition. Nashville Gold and Silver winners compete next at the district level against winners from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Winners from 14 American Advertising Federation districts then will advance to compete at the National Student ADDYs, and a chance to win $1,000, which is awarded for the Student Best of Show.
The art department’s graphic-design program, which is a part of the College of Liberal Arts, features more than 220 student majors and is one of the largest and most successful in the state, said Seth Johnson, associate professor.
“We have hundreds of graduates throughout the country working in the graphic-design industry that graduated from our program over the last 30 years,” Johnson says. “”Naturally, we are excited about this honor and our student accomplishments.”
Professor Barry Buxkamper joins Nagy, Lorson and Johnson as faculty mentors.
The graduating graphic design senior capstone projects from the program will be on display in the Art Department Todd Gallery from April 11 through May 5.


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Note: A high-resolution jpeg photo of the group is available. To obtain, please contact Randy Weiler in MTSU News and Media Relations by calling 615-898-5616 or 898-2919, or e-mail jweiler@mtsu.edu

In Brief

Six MTSU art department graphic-design students combined to earn five golds and two silvers Feb. 22 at the 2011 Nashville Student ADDY Awards in Nashville. The students included seniors Stefanie Cobb (one gold, including Best of Show, and one silver), Whitney Mortimer (gold), Eric Pavol (gold), Cody Newman (gold), Nathan Henris (gold) and Michael Slattery (silver). Their winning entries advance to the district level against winners from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Department chair and associate professor Jean Nagy, professor Barry Buxkamper and associate professors Noel Lorson and Seth Johnson serve as faculty mentors.


Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree — the only one in Tennessee — as a model program. MTSU recently unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

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