The 2018 Design Day was completely different this year and yet it still turned out successful.
Every year the showcase is little different from past ones, thus creating its own challenges. This year’s Design Day, organized by the UNC School of Art and Design, was on Friday, April 13. The challenge was to incorporate the fourth dimension, which includes time, space and motion. In previous years, Design Day has been held outdoors and were insulation pieces; this time, though all the participating artwork were presented with a short video showcasing the fourth dimension.
Kris Heintz-Nelson, the 2D foundations teacher and an associate professor of drawing, said the students that participated should be proud of themselves.
“It’s less about the product and more about the idea,” Heintz-Nelson said.
Heintz-Nelson said she was so impressed with the student’s interpretation of time space and motion. She also said this year’s Design Day was extremely successful, and the three judges tasked with picking a winner agreed with her.
The judges were looking at how well the students understood the fourth dimension concept. Rachel Dineen, a UNC librarian, said she was looking for creativity and the ideas expressed through time, space, and motion. She didn’t take the overall presentation into account when choosing a winner because the students only had two weeks to construct the project.
Stephanie Newton, an instructor at Aims Community College, said she was looking at how well the students tied the overall concept into a visual presentation. She also focused on how well the video explained the student’s ideas and the fourth dimension without the students having to explain it.
All the videos were different from each other. Some were set up as a documentary showing how they used the fourth dimension, while others either showed a animation of the fourth dimension or were interviews. The videos themselves had very few guidelines and could be interpreted in many ways, giving each video a different style.
The last judge was Eleanor Sabin, an artist and Colorado State University Adjunct, said she was looking was at the overall planning, presentation and design ability of the students.
There were three winners and three honorable mentions this year. The first place winner was “Sexualization of Food in the Media” by Rebekah Armstrong, Ivana Gurrola and Maria Morante. The second place winner was “Existence” by Adriana Appelhans, Mitra Chamanbahar, Mia Coates and Stephania Pumphrey. The third place winner was “Existential Dystopia” by Steez Alexan, Sergio Perez and Trent Schultz. In honor of their placement, the winners got their work shown in the the Mariani Gallery and a chance to emcee next year’s Design Day.
“Deforestation” by Anit Natera, Alex Swanty and Allyssa Haynie was the first honorable mention, followed by “No More Room” by Julia Dickson, Marci Linhart, Casey Ryder and Sami Vance. The third honorable mention was “A Day’ by Emma Haley, Elena Niermann, and Max Zikenat.
All of these pieces will be on display in the Mariani Gallery until Monday, April 30.
Video by Madison Burns.
