from Peter Pham
A few facts about this year’s show:
Every year I process the work for each Student Design Show, I make note of the trends that appear among the submissions each year. Certain work is consistently submitted, while other categories seem to ‘ebb and flow.’
- Around 190 pieces were submitted this year. [We’ve had in excess of 300 in a very active year with high enrollments]
- Qualifying student work was to have been created between Spring of 2023 (not previously submitted) through April , 2024.
It may be selected from student coursework, or from parallel individual practice to coursework. - Categories needed to be made up of minimally 5 submissions to remain “competitive.” Where 5 submissions were not received, that category was merged with another similar or like category. (Since the Districtwide Student Design Show began in 1999, we have had anywhere between 7 and 14 categories in a given annual show).
- This year’s categorical submissions (from MOST submissions in a category to the least) were:
- DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION (~17%)
- POSTERS (~15%)
- LAYOUT (~14%)
- LOGOS and IDENTITY (~11%)
- UNEDITED PHOTOGRAPHY (~11%)
- TRADITIONAL MEDIA ILLUSTRATION (~7%)
- EDITED PHOTOGRAPHY (~7%)
- COMPREHENSIVE CAMPAIGNS (~7%)
- PACKAGING / 3D combined (~7%)
- MULTIMEDIA /WEB combined (~4%)
- Digital Illustration, Layout, and Posters have frequently occupied the top slots, and that trend continued this year. This seems to be what most folks commonly associate with “graphic design” as a practical discipline.
- Photography “Straight Out Of the Camera”(SOOC) rose a good amount this year. While far from the 2010’s where it held the top slot, it almost doubled last year’s submissions. If we look at all forms of Photography combined, it would be one of the top categories.
- Logos and Identity had a slight increase.
- Traditional Illustration media had a slight decrease. This is interesting since it is also associated with what most people would consider a major part of graphic design.
- We had enough of the COMPREHENSIVE CAMPAIGNS this year to once again offer it as a competitive category.
- Despite increasing “gig work” available in video and multimedia (and some decent work), many students are still not choosing to enter their multimedia pieces.