For the third year in a row, Frederick Community College graphic design students finished in first place at the annual “MockUp: Student Design Challenge,” which gives students real-world design experience.

The five-member FCC team beat out two teams from Hagerstown Community College and one team from Shepherd University.

The competition was sponsored by AIGA Blue Ridge, a professional design association, and was hosted by Hagerstown Community College in early November.

Each year, student teams spend one week working with a non-profit client in need of design and marketing materials.

The client this year was Blessings in a Backpack, Frederick. The non-profit provides food on the weekends and during school breaks for school children who might otherwise go hungry when school meals are unavailable.

During the challenge, the teams were tasked with organizing the existing marketing materials for Blessings in a Backpack and creating new presentations and strategies to reach high-end business and industry donors.

The FCC team produced a short video promoting the organization, a “hero brochure” for potential business donors to explain the use of donations, and redesigned social media pages.

At the end of the week, the teams gathered together and each team leader presented the finished designs to a panel of judges comprised of graphic design professionals and Hermine Bernstein, Program Coordinator for Blessings in a Backpack, Frederick.

“I was particularly impressed with the team’s preparation for this project,” Hermine Bernstein said. “They had a complete understanding of our mission and how we go about serving Frederick’s children, which was effectively incorporated into their designs. They were creative and innovative, coming up with unique ideas that we can easily include in our existing marketing strategy.”

The FCC team members included:

Tiffany Montes
Kayleigh Montgomery
Carolyn Sangi
Devin Schlicting
Kayla Smith
 
Carolyn Sangi, who served as the team leader this year and was a team member last year, said the competition helped all students grow in their graphic design education.
 
“Each team member worked not to achieve greatness but to be a piece of the puzzle in designing the most efficient and creative solution for our client, effectively supporting one another and facilitating a level of growth we would never have achieved individually,” Sangi said. “Being the team leader of such talented and hardworking individuals was a huge privilege. I cannot thank the team or the institutions involved enough for such an insightful experience."

FCC teams have participated in the competition since it began in 2011 and this is the fourth time they have finished in first place.

FCC offers an Associate Degree in Graphic Design and a certificate in Computer Graphics. The students who participated on the FCC winning team are advanced students in the Graphic Design program.