Graphic design students win prestigious national awards

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Megan Tam and Jacqueline Siry, both sophomore graphic design students at Penn State, won awards for their work in the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) Blue Ridge 2018 Flux Student Design Competition. Tam, who won the Flux Student Award for poster design, created a series of posters for the Penn State Global Education Abroad Program and decided to focus on Hong Kong because it is her hometown. “It means a lot to me to be chosen as a winner because this project is created based on my background and love for my hometown, and it is also my first recognized design piece in my undergrad years," said Tam, who is pursuing a minor in digital media trends and analytics. Siry, who is originally from Westchester, New York, won a Flux Student Award for her publication design of a Donnie Darko book cover. "I was ecstatic to have my work recognized after spending a great deal of time and effort working on my design to push it to the best of my abilities," said Siry. Tam and Siry were encouraged to participate in the competition by Emily Burns, assistant teaching professor of graphic design. The Flux Student Design Award Completion is a nationwide event hosted annually AIGA Blue Ridge. Established in 2006, the awards celebrate the best creative work in seven different design categories by undergraduate and graduate students from across the country. This year, only 126 projects were selected out of 896 total submitted works to receive awards. All of the winning designs can be viewed on the Flux Design Competition website.