GDES Students, Alumni Honored in 2025 Graphis New Talent Awards

International book publisher Graphis holds an annual competition, recognizing students who produce professional-level visual communications work under the guidance of a professor.

Graphic Design (GDES) alumna Jordan Harmon ’24 won gold in the Design | Motion Graphics category for her animation of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 with text brought to life with color, rhythm and hierarchy. Harmon created the piece as part of Associate Professor Courtney Windham‘s Kinetic Typography studio.

“Jordan stands out for her professional approach and beautifully precise use of typography, showcasing her skills and a distinct voice in visual storytelling,” Windham said.

Four alumni from Windham’s Graphic Design II studio animated posters that were awarded silver medals in the Design | Motion Graphics category.

Robert Gleason ’25 centered the poster for a speculative type conference in Chicago around a rotated, modular grid system with embedded schematic drawings that reference the city’s identity. Caroline Webster ’25 was inspired by retro arcade games for her cascading black and orange “Leading and Leaderboards” poster. Ainsley Stewart ’25 modernized letterpress history for a poster advertising Hatch Show Print in Nashville, combining wood-type letterforms with the twang of a guitar string for a place-based design. Evan Phillips ’25 brought a collage to life with an animated poster that flipped through pages of comic books to reveal speakers at a hypothetical conference.

With two submissions from Windham’s courses, Emiko Benton ’25 received a silver medal for the design of a booklet printed on Japanese rice paper that outlines the history, process and significance of Aizome, Japanese indigo dyeing. Benton also received an honorable mention for her animated poster entitled “Type Speaks.”

“The motion posters are examples of the incredibly high standards in our professional program,” Windham said. “Together, their work demonstrates in-depth research, meticulous attention to detail and a shared commitment to the design process from start to finish.”

Three students were recognized for city logos designed during an Introduction to Graphic Design studio taught by GDES Assistant Professor Devon Ward. Jay Denning won silver for a triangular, graduated logo for Munich, Germany. Emma Burns and Ally Mathis received honorable mentions for their logos representing Guangzhou, China and Hanoi, Vietnam, respectively.

“I am very happy to see students from Intro to Graphic Design be recognized for their hard work, attention to detail and international perspective,” Ward said. “For many of these students, this was their first logo, so I am excited to see how they much they will grow as they continue through our program.”

Two GDES students in Ward’s Advanced Interactive Media course also received honorable mentions, including Lavens Maginnis for the design of an app that digitized personal identification documents and Carly DeSimone for an app that identifies noise.

“The aim was to use design as a tool for creating scenarios that we would actively like to live within,” Ward said. “They both developed very innovative concepts for new apps that would be a great benefit to society.”

The winning work can be seen in Graphis’ print Annual.