Sponsored by Neenah
This summer, to give designers an opportunity to become better acquainted with digital printing technology — as well as digital papers that can enhance design projects and solutions — GDUSA once again conducted our “Digital Print Cover Competition.” The challenge: to design a cover of GDUSA magazine. Neenah is a natural sponsor given its rich variety of paper colors and textures for digital printing applications. The winner and honorable mentions, displayed here, were selected from hundreds of entries. The criteria: overall visual appearance, effective communication, and successful integration of the design with a selection from the Neenah digital paper collection.
ABOUT THE WINNER
Don Carter is an award-winning art/creative director based in West Hartford CT. A graduate of Paier College of Art, Don has over thirty five years of experience creating and designing campaigns with Connecticut advertising agencies. For the past fifteen years, he has been leading the creative efforts at Adams & Knight in Avon CT. Wanting to step out from behind the computer, Don developed his own 3-D illustration style using foam board, drywall compound and acrylic paint which led to him illustrating seven picture books for Knopf and Roaring Brook Press (four of which he also wrote). During his time illustrating books, Don used his new business pitching skills to land and create two animated interstitial series with Playhouse Disney, Happy Monster Band and Dance-A-Lot-Robot. Most recently, a life-long love of birds and illustration have come together in recreating Audubon’s Birds of America series in his own simplified, modern flat art graphic style (under the name Edgar Allan Slothman). You can see more of Don’s illustration work here.
ABOUT THE WINNING COVER
“I love the look of combining bold, graphic illustrations with the realism of photography. That juxtaposition of the two styles seems to really make the art come alive. As this example shows, the majority of my work involves animals of some kind (ok, I’ll admit it, mostly birds). This non-bird character, Octavious, was part of pitch for a children’s animated television series. The subtly-toned tile background was added to show off the printability of Neenah’s digital papers.” Don envisioned the cover printed on Neenah’s CLASSIC CREST® Cover SOLAR WHITE 100C (270 g/m2) 13.5pt | Stipple Digital.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Pictured Left to Right: DOUBLE THICK AND SUPER ‘TUFF. Design Firm: Ad.In Advertising, Ocean Springs MS Art Director: Paul Donnell Paper: CLASSIC CREST® Smooth Digital, Classic Natural White; POURQUOI PAS?. Design Firm: Barbara Kosoff Design + Illustration, Santa Monica CA Art Director: Barbara Kosoff Designer: Barbara Kosoff Illustrator: Barbara Kosoff Paper: ROYAL SUNDANCE™ Felt Digital, Ultra White; DIGITAL PRINT RULES. Design Firm: Casey Voinche, Baton Rouge LA Designer: Casey Voinche Paper: CLASSIC COLUMNS® Columns Digital, Recycled 100 Bright White
Pictured Left to Right: STATION. Design Firm: Cole Peck Designs, Osterville MA Art Director: Matthew Peck Paper: NEENAH® Color Copy Papers, Super Smooth Digital, Solar White; PICKING PAPER. Design Firm: Confluence Corporation, Los Angeles CA Art Director: Alicia Clapper Designer: Kailee Quinn Illustrator: Kailee Quinn Paper: CLASSIC CREST®, Stipple Digital, Recycled 100 Bright White; ALWAYS CURIOUS. Design Firm: DLA/Art & Design Department, San Diego CA Art Director: Soudabeh Memarzadeh Designer: Soudabeh Memarzadeh Illustrator: Soudabeh Memarzadeh Photographer: Soudabeh Memarzadeh Paper: ASTROBRIGHTS® Smooth Digital, Lunar Blue
Pictured Left to Right: AMERICAN FLAMINGO CLASSIC. Design Firm: Edgar Allan Slothman, West Hartford CT Art Director: Edgar Allan Slothman Illustrator: Edgar Allen Slothman Inspiration: John James Audubon Paper: ASTROBRIGHTS® Smooth Digital, Pulsar Pink; OFFSET. Design Firm: Garza Art & Design, Kansas City MO Art Director: Bense Garza Paper: ESSE® Smooth Digital, Pearlized Latte; VOTE! Design Firm: geissbühler:design, Hilton Head Island SC Art Director: Steff Geissbühler Designer: Steff Geissbühler Illustrator: Steff Geissbühler Paper: CLASSIC CREST® Smooth Digital, Recycled 100 Bright White
Pictured Left to Right: PRINT TO NATURE. Design Firm: James Tsang, New York NY Designer: James Tsang P aper: ENVIRONMENT® Raw Digital, Concrete; DESIGN IS CALLING Company: Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield WI Art Director: Erik Borreson Designer: Erik Borreson Illustrator: Erik Borreson Paper: STARDREAM® Smooth Digital, Crystal; KENTUCKY DERBY DAY AND HAT CONTEST. Design Firm: Uglyboxes Creative, LLC, Bellevue WA Art Director: Teri Seitz Designer: Teri Seitz Illustrator: Teri Seitz Paper: ASTROBRIGHTS® Smooth Digital, Terra Green
