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La Sierra Art+Design students, faculty win record advertising awards
Third-year La Sierra University marketing and graphic design student Kate Nichols with Art+Design Chair Terrill Thomas.
Eight students and two faculty members won 16 student Addy Awards and five professional Addys during the Inland Empire 2020 American Advertising Awards gala held at Riverside’s Mission Inn. It was a record number of wins for the La Sierra department, and the highest number of total awards in student and faculty prizes of the nine schools that competed in the event. The department also noted its first student academic achievement scholarship, of which only one is awarded during each year's competition, and a first student-won professional level Gold Addy, all granted to marketing and graphic design student Kate Nichols. La Sierra business student Chloe Amundson garnered a silver Addy in the student competition for magazine design. In another first for the A+D department, her project was forwarded to the district level where she also won a silver Addy Award.
Nichols also won a student-category Gold Addy for her design of a photography magazine. For the professional Gold Addy competition, Nichols submitted work she completed for a Loma Linda University Health signage and public art project that used five works she designed. Nichols' professional-level Gold win is highly unusual for a student, according to the American Advertising Federation-Inland Empire chapter which organizes the annual local competitive event and awards gala.
The awards event was also memorable in that it proved to be the last time members of the Art+Design department would officially gather in person prior to the university’s shift into online operations on March 16 toward mitigating further spread of COVID-19 and in keeping with county and state orders.
Art+Design Chair Terrill Thomas, who won three awards including one professional Gold Addy described the department’s performance as a “coming of age” moment. “This was a tremendous milestone for the Art+Design department and La Sierra University,” he said. “By the end of the evening, everyone there knew who La Sierra University was.”
La Sierra Art+Design students and faculty pose with a record number of Addy Awards won during the Inland Empire 2020 American Advertising Awards. Back Row, left to right: Jackie Hernandez, Megan Joseph, Kate Nichols, Chloe Amundson, Tanner Nababan, Terrill Thomas, Leslie Escudero. Front Row, left to right: Tim Musso, Paulino Bernal, Blake Walker, Taylor Johnson.
“By the end of the evening, everyone there knew who La Sierra University was.”
-- Terrill Thomas, Art+Design Chair
The student award winners included business and marketing majors who took Art+Design classes. “I am filled with gratitude that we as a community, art, design and business students, had the opportunity to celebrate both the student and faculty work. This is what it means to be a family,” Thomas said.
The American Advertising Awards Inland Empire competition is part of the national American Advertising Awards, the world’s largest advertising competition. The local event involves a student competition and an event for professionals with 200 categories covering all aspects of advertising. In this year’s gala, a total of 49 students from nine schools and 147 professionals from Riverside and San Bernardino counties and parts of Los Angeles County competed for top honors.
“The Addy Awards is a great opportunity to not only showcase my own work, but also see and be inspired by the work of both students and professionals in the Inland Empire,” said Nichols, a third-year student and Loma Linda resident. Her future plans include owning her own brand that merges her interests in fitness and fashion. “I was fortunate enough to win a Gold Addy. As a graphic design and marketing student, it allows me to bridge the gap between the creative and corporate world.”
One of five signage designs by La Sierra University graphic design and marketing student Kate Nichols, whose work won a professional category Gold Addy award.
A design for a photography magazine by Kate Nichols, winner of a student Gold Addy.
Paulino Bernal won one student bronze Addy and was grateful for his first-time experience at the awards event. “I was honestly surprised that I got an award for my chocolate bar package design. Considering it was the first time I won something for a design I made, a Bronze Addy and recognition are great prizes,” he said.
“Attending the ADDY Awards was something I was looking forward to,” said Tanner Nababan, winner of five student Addys. “Seeing the other school's work is always so interesting and diverse."
La Sierra Art+Design students have participated in the local Addy Awards intermittently over the past 15 years, Thomas said, but over the past two years, the department has made an intentional effort to sponsor students for the competition.
“We are thankful that we can use the Katchamakoff Endowment to help partially fund the cost of student entries,” said Thomas. “As chair of the department and a working designer, I believe the value of the Addy Awards is connecting students to the professionals who exhibit their work there.”
La Sierra University Student Addy winners:
- Katie Nichols - 2 Addy Awards, including a Gold Addy
- Cole Gabriel Rebmann - 1 Addy Award
- Blake Walker - 3 Addy Awards
- Chloe Amundson - 1 Addy Award
- Tanner Nababan - 5 Addy Awards
- Paulino Bernal - 1 Addy Award
- Jackie Hernandez - 2 Addy Awards
- Megan Joseph - 1 Addy Award
La Sierra University Professional Addy winners:
- Art+ Design Department Chair Terrill Thomas – 3 Addy Awards including one Gold Addy
- Art+Design Assistant Professor Tim Musso – 1 Addy Award
- Katie Nichols – 1 Gold Addy
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