Student-driven magazine receives national recgonition as accolades keep coming

This awards season has been kind to ellipse magazine.

A few months after collecting a host of hardware at the local and district levels of the student American Advertising Awards, the RIT CAD students and professors responsible for the creation of the digital and print publication have received even more recognition.

This time, ellipse, made by the fall 2016 Editorial Photo and Editorial Design class consisting of 36 School of Design and School of Photographic Arts and Sciences students, won an award during the national portion of the three-tier competition. ellipse received silver in magazine design in the student division of the national American Advertising Awards (ADDYs), which took place June 10 in New Orleans.

ellipse went up against other college student-created works from around the country and was judged favorably by the jury of design and advertising professionals.

The multidisciplinary course that produced the magazine was co-taught by advertising photography lecturer Rachel Jerome Ferraro and School of Design associate professor Lorrie Frear. Ferraro, who was in attendance at the New Orleans awards show, said the collaborative class is one of the longest-running and most successful in RIT’s curriculum.

The eloquently designed ellipse qualified for the national judging stage of the American Advertising Awards’ student section — sponsored by the American Advertising Federation and National Ad 2 — due to its success in the first two legs of the competition.

ellipse was a tri-gold winner at the local ADDYs on March 16, claiming the honor in three categories (cover, intertwined and publication). The magazine then won gold in April’s District 2 ADDYs for publication design while also grabbing silver for its cover.

ellipse was made with the future in mind. Topics of the publication delve into today’s evolving society as the student-and-faculty team explored subjects that are pertinent in an ever-changing social landscape. It was the first volume of a new series after nine years of the course generating award-winning volumes of Positive/Negative. 

The students — many of whom graduated in May — who contributed to the development of ellipse are: 

Garrett Chase and Dennae Makel (art directors); Lauren Mays and Hanna Tangeman (design directors); Chris Coe and Fontaine Rittelmann (photo editors); Kiara McDade, Sol Ji Park and Kimberly Stager (feature editors); Crystal Follansbee, Catherine Sharp and Colin Turner (production team); Michael Burpoe and Megan Barrette (copy editors); Julie Campbell, Emma Echols, Desmond French, Kelsey Howard, Aaron Tran and Dongni Yang (social media engagement); Sam Kettell and Rebecca Tomasello (assistant art directors); Jessica Arevalo, Yi Chen, Eliza Tehan and Paula Piedrahita (assistant design directors); Yu Jiang and Laura Randall (assistant photo editors); William Kelly (assistant photo and post production editor); David Hampton, Brittney Maue, Rob Rauchwerger and Claudia Schultz (assistant production team); Adam Antalek, Abby Horrmann and Julia Prisaznuk (assistant copy editors).