2017 SEGD Awards
Congratulations University of Houston Graphic Design students on receiving not one, but two 2017 Society of Experiential Design (SEGD) Global Design Awards! The exhibition for En/Gulf received on honor award and Written Wor(l)ds received a merit award.
Among 407 international entries, 41 projects were selected to receive an award. Only 9 received an Honor Award and 32 projects were selected for Merit recognition. En/Gulf and Written Wor(l)ds joins the ranks of those recognized as representing the very best in experiential graphic design worldwide.
News about the SEGD awards and the importance of collaboration for En/Gulf and Written Wor(l)ds was posted on the University of Houston Katherine G. McGovern College of Arts website.
En/Gulf
The exhibition En/Gulf: Ecopoetics of the Gulf and Bay represented the culmination of a semester focused on the ecology of Galveston Bay. The collaboration brought together students of poetry and of graphic design to research and experience the environment and transmit their discoveries through “ecopoetry.” Local and national experts advanced student knowledge through primary research—kayak tours, birding, trawling, videography, and ship channel tours— coupled with secondary research. These investigations of the marshes, bays, and beaches of the Galveston Bay Estuary culminated in poetic, graphic, and three-dimensional interpretations of Gulf ecologies. The expression of place was nuanced through the elements: earth, air, fire, water.
Jury Comment: “The purity of this exhibition, film and branding breathes air into us all by evoking the primal and visceral elements of nature. It’s light, lyrical and certainly poetic while expressing a powerful message. Beautiful typography, palette and layout—executed with incredible care and sensitivity.”
Click here for more information and read other jury comments about En/Gulf.
Exhibition Graphics for En/Gulf: Ecopoetics of the Gulf and Bay. | Design: Raafia Jessa
Specimen jars for the exhibit, En/Gulf: Ecopoetics of the Gulf and Bay
"Endangered Species" Poem by Luisa Muradayan Tannahill, Design by Grace Gossen, Bill Meck and Nguyen Pham.
"Sitting" Poem by Erika Jo Brown, Design by Elisabeth Park, Yoko Kristiansen and Matthew Oakes
Letter-pressed broadside poems.
"Planes of Lucidity" video still; Poem by Daniel Cardoza, design by Candice Cantu, Daniel Cardoza and Matt Hughes.
"The Estuary" Poem by Melanie Brkich, design by Candice Chu, Daniel Cardoza and Matt Hughes.
Written Wor(l)ds
Good stories transcend the words that are used to tell them. The text may be fixed, but literature is ultimately a collaboration: each reader brings the people, the places, and the stories contained within a book to life. Written Wor(l)ds takes this imaginative process a step further by placing each interpretation in three-dimensional space. Here the translation of signifier to signified is made material. These eight installations embody their texts in various ways, manifesting story, character, setting, and mood in order to offer viewers a new and predominantly visual way to experience books which range from classic to modern, from horror to science fiction. Writers can fit whole worlds on a sheet of paper. This exhibition, on the other hand, is the result of careful reduction, of choosing what is representative of the overall work, and essentially transferring that work from the mind to the physical realm. Here is the word made flesh. Here is content embodied in objects, carved in physical space. Here is the metaphor made tangible, the symbolic material.
Jury Comment: “The sensitivity to texture, light and craftsmanship in this piece is enthralling and beautiful. The collaboration of two different student departments to work together only enhanced the end result, which clearly expresses a true collaboration of visual and written media.”
Click here for more information and read other jury comments about Written Wor(l)ds.
"Nana" by Emile Zola, installed by Francsico Delgado, Jim DeVega and Maria Ramirez.
Each of these worlds was created through the use of edited language and constructed form in physical space.
"The Alchemist" by Paul Coelho, installed by Camille Domangue, Andres Garcia and Dan Vo.
"Incarceron" by Catherine Fisher installed by Megan De Maranville, Sarah Salazar and Crystal Pham.
"Lord of the Flies" by William Golding installed by Yu-Lin Chin, Jonathan Lopez and Katie Shockney.
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury installed by Dana Kroos, Susan Dastaran and Estefania Gonzalez
Words were carefully burned to tell a different story.
Written Wor(l)ds window graphics by Sasha Ichoonsigy.
