Graphic Design Grad Wins Graphis New Talent Silver Award

Michael Powers, a 2014 graduate of the Graphic Design Program in the School of Industrial + Graphic Design, won a Silver Award in the Graphis New Talent Award 2015, an international competition. Powers created his video promotional piece, “Road to the Red Planet,” in Assistant Professor Courtney Windham’s Type in Motion studio in Spring 2014. His work will be included in the Film/Motion Graphics section of the annual book and is currently featured in the online gallery.

Windham entered Powers’ work in the competition. Her description of the piece for the competition entry follows:

“Road to the Red Planet” was based on an interview with Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX. The interview was organic in content. Therefore, the motion graphics reflect that organic style. The idea behind “Road to the Red Planet” is the evolution of human life and how the next step of evolution is exploring and possibly living on other planets. Cinema 4D was used to create the particles in the video. The particle effect was featured because that is all we are. We are essentially particles floating through space at tremendous rates.

This piece was from an assignment titled “From Print to Motion,” in Type in Motion course taught by Assistant Prof Courtney Windham in the School of Industrial + Graphic Design. A printed promotional piece was designed to lead the viewer to use an augmented reality app to access an accompanying video. The promotional piece features a trigger image on the front and directions on how to access the video through the app. Once the app is downloaded, the viewer can experience the video by hovering their phone or tablet over the trigger image.”