Lake Campus hosting digital graphic design contest for aspiring high school students

An online competition that enables high school students to show off their design skills by creating a digital advertising poster and logo for a fictional candy store has been launched by a student organization at Wright State University’s Lake Campus.

The 2021 Annual Graphic Gateway Design Competition, hosted by the Wright State University Business and Graphic Professionals, will feature advertising posters with logos.

“This competition allows students that are interested in the graphic design field to have an opportunity for positive feedback while continuing to build that self-confidence in their digital artwork,” said Teresa Richter, coordinator and lecturer for the Graphic Design and Multimedia program and adviser for Business and Graphic Professionals.

The Business and Graphic Professionals began hosting the Spring Showcase Art Show in 2014 for local high schools as part of an effort to help young art students develop confidence in their work before starting a design career and expose them to the cutting-edge degree programs in graphic design and multimedia at the Lake Campus.

The graphic design competition replaced the art show in 2019 to more closely focus on digital design, which is included in many high school and career technical school programs.

The logos, for a fictional candy store called “Candy Charmers,” must have a maximum limit of three colors, feature graphics that appeal to customers’ sweet cravings and include a clever tagline for the store. Bright and highly vibrant colors are suggested. No brand names should be used on the poster.

“The advertising poster must also include generic relatable graphics in vector form. So it becomes a compositional poster of advertising using vector art that additionally encompasses their developed logo for the company,” said Richter. “There is so much more involved in the poster than just a logo.”

The top two winning entrants will each receive a $250 book scholarship to Wright State sponsored by the Western Ohio Educational Foundation board. They will also get a special observance day with professional designers at Totally Promotional in Coldwater as a way of adding a real-life experience with professional designers.

The winning posters will be displayed on the student organization’s website, in the local news media and on the university and organization’s social media pages.

Entries are due by April 16.