Visual communication design students met on the fourth floor of the library for a 24 hour design blitz at Kent State University’s first CreateAthon. 

The Kent State chapter of the American Institute for Graphic Artists (AGIA) hosted the event Nov. 7 and 8 as one of only five schools nationwide to participate in a CreatAthon, Joshua Bird, senior VCD major and designer in the CreateAthon, said.

Students met at 9 a.m. Friday and separated themselves into three teams, each dealing with a different client from a non-profit organization. Each team had four designers.

The teams were faced with different design challenges from their clients. They made logos, designed brochures and banners and one team had to rebrand its organization completely.

The non-profit organizations were TechStyleLAB, the Society of Handicapped Citizens Foundation and Pioneer Girlz. All of these clients had some sort of design or brand issue that the students had to address.

“It’s up to our creative minds to figure out how to solve their problem,” Bird said.

Participating in the event was at no cost to the organizations.

“We’re doing work for non-profit organizations, and we’re doing it with the skills we learn in school,” Kim Anderson, junior broadcast journalism major, said. Anderson ran the social media for the CreateAthon, which included its Twitter and Tumblr pages.

“I like the fact that we’re collaborating in groups because we don’t get to do that in our other classes,” Alyssa Jaskiel, senior VCD major and designer in the Pioneer Girlz group, said. “And it’s fun to stay up for 24 hours and see what you can do.”

The groups met at midnight to critique and review each other’s work. 

“Time (passed) a lot quicker than I thought it would,” said Kate Lingenfelter, senior VCD major.

By 9 a.m. Saturday, the groups had finished their designs. Finally able to return home and get some sleep, the nonprofit organizations walked away with free designs and brands.

Contact Julia Kerchenski at [email protected].