Kaitlyn McCulley ’21, Illustration, wins competition to brand the 2021 Senior Show & Celebration

A team of design professionals has chosen the work of Illustration senior Kaitlyn McCulley to brand the 2021 Senior Show & Celebration. Each year, senior Graphic Design and Illustration students compete for the honor – and the top design will be used on everything from tickets and advertising to social media and the website archive used as a permanent gallery for the Class of 2021.

Her theme, McCulley said in the introduction to unveiling her design, “explores the budding diversity and raucous celebration of the school and our graduation. A flock of birds with extensive biodiversity is used to represent it, all framed by (the College’s) symbolic peacock.

The flurried explosion of birds on the wing, she says, “kind of represents how we as a small community flocked together for four years — and you’ll see in the piece how they kind of explode outwards, which I think could kind of represent us going on our different paths now.”

Each year, the College invites senior Illustration and Graphic Design majors to compete for the honor of creating the theme and images for this milestone event. Typically an all-college gathering in the Atrium, this year’s finals went online — a change that one final-round judge noted might seem difficult at first, but will serve them well. Student designers who can work and present well online, said Lauren Panepinto, an NYC Art Director, “transition well to the working world.” And the competition, said judge Dennis Brubaker, founder of CrossRoads Studios, also allowed the seniors to stretch some other important skills. “You’re all creative,” Brubaker said in recorded remarks “but, more than that, in my view, you’re problem-solvers.”

Kaitlyn McCulley’s ticket design for the 2021 Senior Show & Celebration.

Second place was awarded to Maddie Lyash ’21, Graphic Design:

Motion graphic by Maddie Lyash ’21, Graphic Design.

Third-place honors went to Zorina Eckman ’21, Graphic Design:

2021 Senior Show & Celebration artwork by Zorina Eckman ’21, Graphic Design.

Other finalists, in alphabetical order, included:

Frank Barbera ’21, Illustration:

2021 Senior Show & Celebration branding by finalist Frank Barbera ’21, Illustration.

Hannah Guldin ’21, Illustration:

2021 Senior Show & Celebration branding by Hannah Guldin ’21, Illustration.

Ken Landis ’21, Illustration:

Graphic by 2021 Senior Show & Celebration finalist Ken Landis ’21, Illustration.

Breanna Nelson ’21, Illustration:

Motion graphic by 2021 Senior Show & Celebration finalist Breanna Nelson ’21, Illustration.

Judging for the final round was tasked to a team of five design professionals who evaluated both the students’ work and their presentations:
Brandon Adams, Graphic Designer, Garden Spot Village; Dennis Brubaker, founder of CrossRoads Studios in Reading; Christine Foltzer, Art Director/Designer with Tor.com Publishing in New York City; Lauren Panepinto, Art Director at Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group, New York City; and Amanda Weir ’20, Graphic Design, who created the winning brand for the 2020 Senior Show & Celebration.