9th AIGA Birmingham Student Portfolio Review

This Saturday, April 14th, the AIGA Birmingham will hold their 9th Annual Student Portfolio Review. This year the review will be held at UAB's Design Studios in HB 104. The reviews begin at 12 noon and continue on to 3pm. Local designers from many of Birmingham's top design studios and agencies will be on hand to give feedback on student design portfolios.

After the reviews, stay for the round-robin discussion, "You Have the Degree Now Get a Job." 5 recent UAB grads will be on hand to discuss their first year out of school and what it takes to get a design job in Birmingham. The discussion will be held from 3 to 3:45.

Sign up for the review at: AIGA Birmingham

$5 for AIGA Members, $15 for non-members.
Current students only please.

Emerging Designer Showcase

Thanks to everyone who participated in the First AIGA Birmingham Emerging Designers Showcase. Special thanks to this year's judges, Marion Powers, Anna Denbo and Sara Cannon. The show was a big success and we are looking forward to making this a bigger and better event next year. Congratulations to all the winners.


Best of Show 
• First Place - Split Milk Cartons, Alyssa Mitchell
• Second Place - Findley Market, Campaign, Liz Springer
• Third Place - Handmade Books,  Ashley Lindsey


Best of Category
• Broadcast/Interactive = BluPrint, Andrew Williams
• Logo = Stitch, Brittany Fox
• Stationary = AM Self promo, Alyssa Mitchell
• Editorial = Caffeine, Carey Marks
• Poster = Fold 4 Piece, Brittany Fox
• Non-Traditional = Stitch Garment Hang tag, Brittany Fox
• Campaign = Finley Market, Liz Springer
• Packaging = Split Milk, Alyssa Mitchell
• FIne Art = Handmade Books, Ashley lindsey

Runner Up
Fine Art: 2D = Ashley lindsey (Birds), Katie Hale (Photos)
3D = (Turkey) Lindsey Warner, (Vase) Leah Hamel

Packaging = (Olio) Brittany Fox, (Taste This) Brittany Fox, (AM Boxes) Alyssa Mitchell, (Dixieland Delights) Jennifer Waycaster
Logo = (Elizabeth Gross) Melissa Frennea
Editorial = (Whale Book) Jin Chung
Non-traditional = (Cahaba Auto Tags) Emily Kerley ,
Poster: (Crime Poster) Alyssa Mitchell, (Hiroshima Poster) Charles Carraway
Interactive = (AM Website) Alyssa Mitchell

Design Students Win 2012 Addys

UAB Graphic Design Students were awarded 12 Student Addy awards at the 2012 Addys. Design student Jin Lee Chung was awarded the Best of Show for student work. 

Best of Show - Student

• Jin Lee Chung

Gold - Student

• Alyssa Mitchell, Split Milk Packaging
• Jin Lee Chung, "Alabama Eats" Snack Chips Packaging
• Brandi Wilson-Sides, Unesco Monarch Butterfly Reserve Promotional Material
• Mat Powell, Ruffner Mountain Run Poster

Silver - Student

• Emily Kerley, Alabama Snack packaging
• Brittany Fox, OLIO, Olive Oil Package Design
• Jin Lee Chung, Emily Kerley, Jennifer Waycaster, Group Project - Cahaba River Society Brochure
• Samantha Gibbons, Amy Clark, Chasity Simms, Group Project - Cahaba River Society Brochure
• Daniel Twieg, The Consigliere, Poster
• Mat Powell, Surviving a Science Fiction Film, Booklet
• Alyssa Mitchell, Generating Bright Ideas, Self Promo

Brandi Wilson-Sides BFA Exhibition

UAB Design graduate Brandi Wilson-Sides' BFA exhibition is on display from November 21 thru December 19, at the UAB Mervyn-Sterne Library. The BFA work is on display in the first floor display cases.

"This exhibition features three campaigns based on companies that represent standards that I find admirable and unique," said Brandi. Each campaign contains a business system, a product, and product packaging. You can see all three of these campaigns as well as a diagram and examples of the process used to create them.

Design Team Project chosen by CRS

The Cahaba River Society has chosen team H2O's brochure campaign design to use as their official marketing materials. Monica Carmichael of the CRS said it had been a very hard decision based on the outstanding quality of the work they received. The final brochures are in editing now and will go into production at Vulcan Materials later this month. Congratulations to team H2O.

H2O 

Members: Daniel Twieg, Lindsay Warner, Jasmine Gooden 

See the other teams and designs after the jump:

Design Students Present to Local Agencies

On Thursday, November 11th, UAB's Intermediate Graphic Design students presented their final work for the Cahaba River Society to Monica Carmichael and Gordon Black of the Society. The students worked in teams of 2/3 for the past 3 weeks, visiting the Cahaba river, taking photos and developing their own visual narrative about this wonderful Alabama resource.

Matt Leavell from the Alabama Engine and Dan Monroe from Cayenne Creative were also part of the group listening to presentations and offering feedback. The Society will choose a direction form the eight  options and work with that team to finalize the project.

Previously, students had present the work to David McMath at Intermark and Sara Cannon and Dan Gavin from Scout for in-process feedback.

Watch for more info as the project develops.

Design Grad Chosen for DoD Design

UAB graphic design graduate Christopher Murphy's poster design was chosen as the winning entry for the Birmingham Day of the Dead festival for 2011. The poster and children's tees will be available at the festival.


Dia de los Muertos #9 will be held at the old Bare Hands gallery location in downtown Birmingham. Wednesday, November 2, 2011 from 5pm - 10pm.

For more information go to barehandsinc.org or on facebook -

Dia de los Muertos.

UAB Art Faculty to Show at the GMA

UAB art faculty will show recent work at the Gadsden Museum of Art's Alabama's Best invitational art exhibition. Alabama's Best is on display from November 1st to December 31st, with an opening on November 20th. UAB artists featured include: Gary Chapman, Sonja Reiger, Jim Alexander, Erin Wright, John Powers, Doug Baulos, Christopher Lowther, and Doug Barrett.

The goal of the Gadsden Museum of Art is to support and maintain a museum of local history and to support and maintain a museum dedicated to Southern artists. The museum is open Monday - Saturday from 10am - 4pm.

UAB Designer Teas featured on Project Splash

One of UAB's Introduction to Graphic Design projects is featured on Project Splash this month. The project titled, "Designer Teas," is an introductory project where design students are paired with historic designers as a way to interact with and build their own aesthetic. Student research other designers such as, El Lissitsky, Art Chantry, David Carson, Paul Rand, Lester Beall, etc., and use there work as a collaborative spring board to inspire their own work.

The project also requires considering the work in 3D and building a box from a template, using those all important craft skills!

UAB Designs for Non-Profit

UAB design students are currently working with the Cahaba River Society on a project to create 3 new brochures that support the mission of the local non-profit. The CRS is an organization who's missions is, "to restore and protect the Cahaba River watershed and its rich diversity of life." Students will spend the next 4 weeks, exploring the river, doing research on the rich plant and animal life and working on designing a brochure system that tells the unique story of this wonderful resource.  

The project is being facilitated by Matt Leavell at Alabama Engine.