RIT students make strong showing at ADDY Awards

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Editorial campaign produced by Jason Sfetko that won a national Student ADDY Silver Award

An RIT student is among this year’s national Student ADDY winners, an advertising competition sponsored by the American Advertising Federation.

Jason Sfetko, a fourth-year graphic design student, created an editorial campaign about violence and video games that earned a national 2008 Student Silver Award in the editorial spread category. Sfetko, the former art director of Reporter, designed the layout to accompany an article in one of the magazine’s issues last winter.

“Chris Lyons, one of my design professors, thought it was a good piece and encouraged me to enter competitions like this one,” says Sfetko. “It was great to be recognized for my work, and it’s another way to get my name out there with other top students in the design field entering the workforce.”

Sfetko, along with several other RIT students, won ADDY awards at the local level from the Rochester Advertising Federation, the area affiliate of the AAF. Specifically for college students, this program is similar to the ADDY Awards competition for professionals.

Fourth-year advertising photography majors Ben Liddle, Kendra Rennick and Maegan Gindi and Joe Carpenito, a fourth-year new media design and imaging student, garnered a student ADDY award from the Rochester chapter for their advertising spread about the Internet online dating service Match.com. Their ads feature a cat lover, a bad cook, a video game nerd and a jock.

“We wanted to work with people and do something humorous,” says Liddle. “Internet dating fit the category.”

To find models, the students took out ads on Craig’s List and solicited suggestions from friends. The ad campaign was produced for their Advertising Photography II course, so time was limited. Along with models, the students had to gather props for the photo shoots. Cats, a bevy of borrowed RIT team sports trophies and a charred turkey breast were just a few they used.

“It was a lot of time and work and, we knew from the beginning that we wanted to submit it for an ADDY,” says Liddle. “Our hard work paid off.”

The Rochester chapter also honored Ross Thompson, a fourth-year advertising photography major, with a student ADDY for one of his portraits. Each of the award-winning entries received a $500 scholarship. Three other advertising campaigns produced by RIT students were honored with a LADDY, the runner-up awards.