Visual Communication Design students Amir Khosravi and Jerad Lavey received an honor award from the Society for Environmental Graphic Design for their design work in the M.A.C. Center at the SEGD 2006 Annual Conference and Expo.

Anne Berry and Kristal Ernst also received a Merit Award at the conference in Hollywood earlier this month for their work with a student and affordable housing design project in Chicago.

“The students, as well as myself, attended the conference for free, all expenses paid for the four-day international conference,” said David Middleton, associate professor and graduate coordinator.

Both of the projects were produced by GLYPHIX, a design and illustration studio located in the Art Building. GLYPHIX works on VCD projects for various non-profit organizations such as hospitals, schools and other public agencies.

The Society for Environmental Graphic Design, an international non-profit educational foundation located in Washington D.C., announced 32 exceptional designs to receive recognition within the society’s Design Awards Program.

The winning designs were selected from 357 entries submitted from around the world, including entries from Australia, Canada, India, the Netherlands, Korea, New Zealand, Qatar, Thailand and the United States.

“Energetic yet restrained, this project was a standout, particularly since it was designed, produced and installed by KSU honors design studio students with virtually no budget for implementation. The project, located in an athletic study hall facility, had two goals; To honor current and former athletes in the KSU Academic All-American program and to recruit other students into the program,” the judges said in a written comment about the designs in the M.A.C. Center.

Environmental Graphic Design is a field of graphic design that is concerned with the visual aspects of wayfinding, communicating identity and information and shaping the idea of place.

The student and affordable housing project is an interdisciplinary course including universities in Chicago and real estate MBA’s from the DePaul Real Estate Center, Middleton said.

“This is a privately funded course in its third year, which includes video-conferenced lectures, interdisciplinary teamwork, travel, visiting lecturers and more,” he said. “The course this fall will deal with green building and other aspects of sustainability.”

Middleton was individually awarded the Angel Award at the conference. The Angel Award was granted to members of the organization who have made major contributions to the direction and expansion of the society.

The M.A.C. Center project was printed at the KSU Media Center.

Contact colleges of Communication and Information and Architecture reporter Amber Gallihar at [email protected].