MIAD students and alumni racked up the accolades at the 2016 United Adworkers Milwaukee 99 awards show.
Aaron Czarnecki ’17
Madyson Brady ’17, Aaron Czarnecki ’17 and Daniela Valle Chavelas ’17, all Communication Design majors, received student merit awards for their work.
Czarnecki, who completed a rebrand for Nana Asian Fusion & Sushi Bar, believes that feeling comfortable enough at MIAD to ask questions and even fail prepared him to do work of this caliber.
“Having a group of professionals from the field hand-pick your work sort of brings it out of the school setting and into a more real world environment. It’s almost like a stamp of approval,” he said.
His instructor, Phil Belair, says that’s exactly what they try to prepare students for, saying “our Communication Design program is rich in providing ‘real world’ design skills.”
Those skills are honed in specific courses such as Art Direction, Hand-Rendered Typography, Packaging Design, Information Design and Advertising Design—courses only a few programs have.
Additionally, MIAD won a Silver award for its 2015-17 Admissions catalog. This includes art direction from Adrian Gilling ’10 and Chelsea Atwell ’10, principal photography from Mark Fetherston ’89, additional photography from Jaclyn Poeschl ’10 and principal writing from Stacey Steinberg ’04.
MIAD catalog | concept, design, writing and photography by MIAD alumni
More alumni had strong showings in the awards:
Maxx Valenti ’10, an art director at Cramer-Krasselt, won a Gold award for a Metro Market environmental design campaign, a silver award for a Can-Am ATV photography single and several merit awards.
Ryan Strzok ’13, as an art director at BVK, took home the Gold for a Wyoming Office of Tourism integrated campaign and numerous merit awards.
Nick Waraksa ’04, as part of Blend Studios, received a Gold award for animation/motion graphics done for Snap-on Tools.
Other award-winning alumni include: Ben Halpin ’08, Jillian Turbessi ’14, Carsyn Taylor McKenzie ’14, Kelsey Barnowsky ’11, Matt McNulty ’13, Ryan Carter ’09, Brett Stenson ’09, Zac Jacobson ’11, Emily Ebert ’15, Anne Linginfelter ’09, Alex Mora ’14, Mark Gage ’11 plus adjunct faculty member Tony Seaman.
Learn more about MIAD’s Communication Design program.
See how MIAD was named a top graphic design school by Graphic Design USA.
