Up Close with Our 2010 Honorable Mention

Up Close with Our 2010 Honorable Mention We're taking a look back at this past year's Student Design Competition winners to see if their work and insight can give you a little inspiration to start your own entries for this year's competition.

Nicole Zigmont, now a recent grad from the Rochester Institute of Technology, merited an Honorable Mention prize with her entry, winning her an internship at Complex magazine this summer. Once again, self-created illustrations caught our judges' attention, along with her fun sense of typography. Read on to see more of her entry and to hear how she did it. And then get your brain going to create your entry!

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Honorable Mention
NICOLE ZIGMONT
SCHOOL:  Rochester Institute of Technology
LEVEL:  Senior
INSTRUCTOR:  Chris Lyons
CATEGORY:  How-To

What was your inspiration in creating your entry?
I really wanted to do a "how to" piece because I personally love reading how-to articles. My inspiration for my entry was the iconic figures that I remembered from my childhood like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Superman, Lex Luthor, and so on. These figures gave me the vision to transform ordinary high fives into animated ones.

What was the biggest challenge in creating your entry?
The biggest challenge was actually coming up with the idea. Once it started coming together, I had fun with it.

Did you participate in any publication- or design-related campus activities?
I didn't get involved with my school's publication. I thought I was strictly a graphic designer for the last three years and never considered editorial design as a career until my senior year. I was an AIGA student member and was also fortunate enough to meet some influential designers who came to visit the RIT campus like Stefan Sagmeister, Massimo and Lella Vignelli, and Roger Black.

What are your favorite magazines?
A few of my favorite magazines are Wired, Esquire, Grafik, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Interview, Metropolis, and Popular Mechanics.

How was your internship?
My internship at Complex magazine was eye-opening. I not only learned things quickly, but I learned to be quick. There's a lot of prep and production that goes into the magazine and the website, and more importantly, there's a lot of team work involved. I have been really grateful for the amount of work that I was able to contribute to both the magazine and the website. Let's just say they kept me on my toes.

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Wanna know how you can enter the 2011 competition?
Click here for all the details.
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