RIT students win Rochester Addy Awards

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Positive Negative Magazine (pictured) and an animated opening sequence were among RIT winners at the 24th annual Rochester Addy Awards.

As has become an annual tradition, Rochester Institute of Technology took several top student honors at the 24th annual American Advertising Awards—known as the Addys.

Positive Negative Magazine Vol. 8 won two gold Addys—one for the overall magazine in the student collateral category. Both RIT designer Sophia Del Plato, a fourth-year graphic design student from Batavia, N.Y., and photographer Emily Au, a fourth-year advertising photography student from Rochester, N.Y., also won gold for their exceptional story/photography/design for a magazine article titled “The Restricted Section.”

Del Plato and Au also won $650 each for Ernst and Young/Rochester Advertising Federation (RAF) scholarships for their work on the magazine—a shared product of the editorial design and photography courses at RIT taught by College of Imaging Arts and Sciences professors Denis Defibaugh and Lorrie Frear.

The magazine, which comes out on what would be the final exam day for the course at the end of the semester, has won a number of local, national and international awards in recent years.

Two fourth-year RIT new media design students—Jack Wilson of Cohasset, Mass., and Ryan Kiley from Fairport, N.Y., won a gold Addy in visual animation/special effects under the elements of advertising category for their animated opening sequence to the Thought at Work conference. The conference draws some of the industry’s hottest designers and hundreds of college students from across the nation to campus each fall.

Wilson and Kiley created a 3D composition of a dream-like land of white modeled using objects commonly found in an industrial design studio. To give the piece an ethereal feel, shadows were lightened to soften the overall composition. The use of a wide-open space to situate the scene helped give the composition vast light and airiness.

Alexandra Genova, a fourth-year advertising photography student from Honeoye Falls, N.Y., took home a silver Addy for her photography of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The Addys took place March 13 with awards going to nearly 80 local agencies, freelancers and students for their creative industry work, officials said. The host of the event was the Rochester Advertising Federation.

This year 351 entries were submitted to be considered for this year’s awards and Addy Gold Level winners will move on to the regional competition in the coming months.

Go to the RAF Blog webpage for a complete list of award winners.