California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) is the youngest CSU campus. So, naturally, they honor tradition but are committed to innovation. It starts with structuring its educational experience around students, including developing their global perspectives with curricula and real-world opportunities to identify and solve complex societal issues.
With the art department's most significant event of the year fast approaching, they needed to make students aware to encourage their participation and ensure the exhibition's success. After all, it happens once per year to showcase their work. Once faculty completes comprehensive reviews, a single student earns the commission to create print materials for the event. Awarded with the project, Playstead's founder, Nathan Plaisted, immediately built out a brief based on the single theme unifying all previous events' works to keep it weird. And the name of the year's event—You Say Potato. I say Art.
For students, CSUCI fulfills its mission by fostering an inclusive community. So, a diverse student body became the project's focus and valuing the student experience, the goal.
The banner and posters visually communicate diversity accessibly and keep the subject matter weird. They were posted throughout campus and collected by students and faculty alike. After all, their design is as bold and daring as the students it represents, which contributed to the show's opening night—a full house with students, faculty, and friends in attendance, an ideal fit for this one awesome community.
DISTINCTION
Commission, sole honoree, California State University Channel Islands
