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2021 Art + Design Graphic Design Awards
Ryan Coughlin
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Ryan Coughlin
Certificate of Excellence in Graphic Design
Ryan Coughlin is an artist and graphic designer from Lawrence, Massachusetts. As a Sophomore Graphic Design concentrator, he continues to refine his illustration and design skills. Although he always loved drawing, his passion for art and design fully materialized in High School studio art courses. He typically likes exploring art based around the bizarre, silly, and alien but can pivot in style for whatever the project needs. In his work, he strives to create quality creations that combine his unique mixture of playful, quirky illustration and design. As a bit of a perfectionist, he puts design flexibility and acceptance of constructive criticism above everything else. Ultimately, Ryan wants his art to leave a positive impact, whether it be through entertainment or the service the design provides.
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Sam Deeb
Certificate of Excellence Graphic Design
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Sam Deeb
Certificate of Excellence in Graphic Design
Sam is a versatile graphic designer with an interest in creating clean, modern design. He tends to be a well-rounded designer, looking at all aspects of the design process.
Art and Design student Shannon Fuller
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Shannon Fuller
CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
Growing up in Framingham and Natick, Shannon Fuller has always had a passion for the arts. She hopes to create a life surrounded by her love of all things art and give back to her community just as those have given to her. Her growth while studying at Salem State ignites a fire in hopes of becoming an art teacher and at some point, a full-time artist. She credits her teacher Sheila Curran of Natick High School with sparking her creative passion.
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Eli Hernandez-Scales
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Eli Hernandez-Scales
CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
Eliezer Hernandez-Scales grew up in Malden, Massachusetts. After an unfulfilling career in culinary arts, he discovered a passion for graphic design and began his new career at Salem State. Eli is always ready to explore new avenues for design. He enjoys creating branded pieces from packaging design to print and digital advertising. His web design experience also helped him expand his understanding of user experience. He is determined to pursue his dream career and continue growing as a designer.
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Katie Hopta
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Katie Hopta
Certificate of Merit for Distinguished Service
Katie Hopta is an artist and Graphic Designer working on a major in Information Technology and a minor in Graphic Design at Salem State. She has been drawing ever since she was seven years old and continues to create little doodles and graphics inspired by video games. Growing up and living all of her life in Massachusetts, she has always worked to make a connection with everyone she meets and tries to find continuing inspiration for her designs through others' experiences, as well as her own. Most of her graphic design experience is in creating logos for people who stream video game content online.
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Wendy Lan
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Wendy Lan
Certificate of Merit for Distinguished Service
Chinese American artist, Wendy Lan, is a graphic designer who also works in other mediums. A majority of their works focus on mental health advocacy, social change, as well as, sustainability. Their triptych design featured in this year’s Student Award Exhibition was created via Adobe Illustrator. The design began as a simple sketch - a creation out of boredom - turned to three pieces that tell a narrative. Their hopes for this collection of digital illustrations is to provide comfort to the viewers who are going through their own life trials and tribulations. No matter what you are going through, you are never alone.
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Anna Malkina
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Anna Malkina
CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENT IN GRAPHIC DESIGN AND INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA
Anna is (from another planet). She likes to experiment with anything she can find a creative application for. Anna likes to use her pen sketches to add an organic feel to otherwise digitally-generated design.
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Erin Melin
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Erin Melin
CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
Erin Melin embraces versatility incorporating her own illustrations, bold colors, flat geometric elements, and playful concepts into her designs. Packaging design excites her the most because she can experience how her art exists in the physical world. In the coming year, she’s looking forward to working on her honors art thesis that plans to explore ethical packaging design and the psychology associated with it.
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Nicole Ofiesh
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Nicole Ofiesh
CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
Nicole Ofiesh began taking art classes as a child and has simply never put down the pencil. Always having a passion for creativity, her previous decision to study Actuarial Science timed out very quickly. Nicole dove into Graphic Design and developed her own style upon transferring to Salem State. She seeks heavy inspiration from nature and loves utilizing her illustrative skills throughout her work.
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Julia Serino
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Julia Serino
Certificate of Excellence in Graphic Design
Julia Serino is a graphic designer from the small, coastal town of Swampscott, Massachusetts. Ever since she was a little girl, she has constantly created: drawing portraits, writing poems, and playing musical instruments. With anything she creates, her goal is to tell a story. Graphic design has become another outlet for her to do so. In this branding project for artisan chocolate company, Kakó, Julia takes inspiration from the glaciers in Iceland for the packaging design. Doing so, she represents the environment in which the cocoa originates from. In general, Julia’s work is often influenced by her love for music, people, and her faith. As she graduates this spring, she looks forward to her future as a professional graphic designer.
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Jenna Tirone
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Jenna Tirone
CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
Jenna Tirone grew up in Melrose, Massachusetts and her passion for art started from the moment she could hold a crayon. Her love for graphic design began at Salem State as she used her drawing skills to become a digital artist. She has a keen eye for vibrant, eye-catching color palettes modern typographic trends. Jenna most enjoys designing with handcrafted text, as she develops her own typefaces from drawings.
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Sky Welch
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Sky Welch
CERTIFICATE OF MERIT
Sky graduates with a powerhouse combination of a graphic design concentration with a minor in advertising. Her portfolio showcases comprehensive logo design, package design, publication layout, rebranding, and advertising. Sky strives for crips, clean and modern designs that capture the unique essence of each individual brand while adding her own vibrant flare.
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Andrei Wood
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Andrei Wood
CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
Andrei Wood didn’t start drawing until his Sophomore year in high school. Combining his background in psychology with a love for diverse color palettes, and Dungeons and Dragons helps him create a rich world of diverse and interesting characters for his stories and campaigns. He hopes to incorporate art into his psychology work while helping kids through rough times the same way he did: creatively!
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