Student Competition
10.30.14
#TBT: SPD-U Throws it Back to 1999 Student Competition Winner Lou Vega
As part of SPD's 50th Anniversary celebration, we're looking back at our past Student Competition winners (see galleries of past winning work here on the blog each Wednesday). A few of them were kind enough to speak with us about what they've been up to since their wins and how the competition affected them. In 1999 as part of our 5th Student Competition, Lou Vega won the top B.W. Honeycutt Award for his work as a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology under instructor Susan Cotler-Block (see his award-winning work below as well as in the full gallery of winners here).
We were lucky enough to talk with Lou -- who's now the Senior Art Director at Bloomberg Markets Magazine -- about his work and perspective on the publishing industry. His design work truly speaks for itself. Having previously worked at Premiere, Inc. and ESPN the Magazine, his active layout design and inventive typographic treatments make for some visually stimulating page turners. Read on to see where life has taken him since his SPD Student Competition 1st-place win back in 1999 ...
Image above: a spread design for Bloomberg Markets
Lou's B.W. Honeycutt Award-winning design from our 1999 SPD Student Competition
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SPD-U: What are you currently up to and how can you best describe your day-to-day?
LOU: At Bloomberg Markets, I work with the creative director to interpret stories visually in creative and fresh ways. Additionally, I work on branding packages which entails making the features that spread across multiple pages look and feel cohesive.
Branding graphics for various Bloomberg Markets story packages
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Bloomberg Markets feature spread
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SPD-U: What has been your greatest achievement thus far in your career?
LOU: By far my greatest achievement was winning the B.W. Honeycutt SPD Student Competition award. I distinctly remember sitting in the library perusing piles of magazines that I admired. So to suddenly be thrust into a swanky party [the annual SPD Gala] with these great art directors whose work I had been following was just thrilling.
ESPN the Magazine feature spread
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SPD-U: What advice would you give someone trying to get into the industry now?
LOU: Carry a sketchbook. Constantly update your portfolio. Sometimes your first idea is the best, sometimes it's not; but always push how far you can stretch an idea. Keep up-to-date with typography, illustrators and photographers, so when the time comes to match an abstract concept to a creative solution, it will be much easier to explain and execute. Smile.
ESPN the Magazine feature spread
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SPD-U: A huge thanks to Lou for talking with us!
You can see more of his work at:
PORTFOLIO SITE: cargocollective.com/louvega
Be sure to check back in with us every Wednesday this fall for more galleries of past Student Competition work, and every Thursday for more Throwback Thursday interviews with past winners. And look for details about this year's competition here (they'll be available soon!).
#TBT series produced and edited by Jamie Feld and Alyssa Clare Hoersten
