Auburn Students and Faculty Honored in 2023 UCDA Awards

The competition was judged by a panel of 18 designers, design educators, photographers and illustrators who work in education. They evaluated 733 print and digital entries and gave out 146 awards, including Gold Awards, Silver Awards and Awards of Excellence as well as Honorable Mentions. Webster received one of only 12 Gold Awards, the competition’s highest honor, for her student competition entry titled “House of Cards.” Webster, a student of SIGD faculty member David Smith, said this project was based on the Eames interlocking deck of playing cards. “I chose to explore the link between gas stations and non-renewable energy, while offering a few more sustainable solutions in the process,” she stated. Moates, a student of faculty member Mario Bocanegra, won an Award of Excellence for his entry entitled “The Vulcan Identity.”

Finkel received an Award of Excellence in the Environmental Graphics-Wayfinding/Signage category of the Print and Digital competition for his design of the Selma Bloody Sunday Foot Soldiers Traveling Exhibit. The exhibition tells the story of Bloody Sunday, the 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, where civil rights marchers were attacked during a peaceful protest on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. His design of freestanding panels and waist-high reader rails provide images, anecdotes and contextual information collected from research. The traveling exhibition made its debut at the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee this past March and is currently on display at Selma University.