2015-16 NACMA 'Best of' Award Winners

DALLAS -- For the second consecutive year, the only art school in the NCAA was the recipient of national recognition for its 2015-16 marketing efforts last week. The National Association of Collegiate Marking Administrators announced its 'Best of' Award winners, bestowing Academy of Art University Athletics its highest honor (gold) in the categories of Promotional Schedule Poster, Static Display Ad, and Single-Day Attendance Promotion as well as silver for the Urban Knights' "Sketch Knight" competition under the Social Media Promotion category.

These honors were out of approximately 1,000 schools from NCAA Division II, Division III, and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Initiated in 2003, the NACMA 'Best of' Awards program honors outstanding achievement in marketing and promotions. Awards are presented in 13 categories, with each category divided into three groups based upon school size and conference affiliations to promote fairness. The winners were recognized during NACMA's 25th Annual Convention at the awards ceremony in Dallas, Texas.

"Being a part of NACMA has truly helped our department grow and all of these awards are a testament to our previous Director of Athletics Colin Preston who pushed our student-athletes and the department to use our creativity," said Director of Marketing Cameron De Lay. "Working for a school that is so unique and open to doing things differently has really allowed for athletics to integrate within the school and ultimately shows the creative abilities that our student-athletes pose. It is very humbling to be honored with four awards and we look forward to next year." 

For the 2015-16 seasons, ART U continued its series of dynamic schedule poster designs that highlight the unique talents emerging from classrooms on its campus. Challenging its student staff to raise the bar higher than ever before, a creative team was assembled composed of former artist-athletes including Photography majors Marley Sutter (women's soccer) and Jasmine Dickenson (softball) along with Graphic Design majors Nina Gajdosikova (women's tennis) and Haily MacDonald (softball).

"It's a great honor! Being an artist-athlete has been such a huge part of my life and I am proud to be an Urban Knight so I am always thrilled whenever our athletic department and athletic teams gain recognition for our achievements," said MacDonald. "I think it makes a statement about what kind of students we are as a unique breed of student-athletes because we are artists. Being able to say we not only performed athletically for our school, but were able to put our second passion, our creativity (photography and graphic design), together to represent our school's athletic teams was a great experience and I'm very pleased everyone enjoyed them as well."  

Authentic to artist-athletes past and present, the schedule poster design was originally conceptualized by Academy of Art men's soccer alumni Max Delegeane and Grimur Grimsson, furthered by the creativity of Preston as well as the student staff, and eventually brought to life in the fall. The idea behind the design was to integrate elements from the city of San Francisco with athletic actions to reflect the unity that exists within each artist-athlete on a daily basis. Each sport represented a unique work of art, ranging from volleyball with the Golden Gate Bridge, basketball with Coit Tower, and golf with Lombard Street. The poster submitted to NACMA was of women's soccer senior forward Réa Laudat mixed with the Painted Ladies and city skyline as produced by the aforementioned quartet.

"I had a great time collaborating with Jasmine, Nina, and Marley," said MacDonald. "It was nice being able to work with other artist-athletes on projects outside of my day-to-day classwork. I think the four of us made a great team because our creativity and athletic backgrounds helped us share the ability to work toward a common goal. We were all determined to make schedule posters that were different from what had been done in the past, but also something our athletes would be excited to look at when they were revealed."

The schedule poster design served dual purposes and was utilized as a static display advertisement to highlight the Urban Knight Nation fan club in the fall as well. A two-sided card was created to promote soccer, volleyball, and cross country home contests as well as recreation sport events, outlining themes as well as fan giveaways. The eye-catching ad was placed throughout various Academy of Art campus locations and increased awareness of the club's 2015-16 re-brand.

For an event that made ART U a finalist for the NCAA Award of Excellence, the Urban Knights celebrated National Coming Out Day in front of a large crowd at its women's soccer match this past October. Focused on the theme of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender awareness, athletes and fans alike had a variety of opportunities to offer their support and acceptance of the LGBT community. The women's soccer team itself wore rainbow wristbands and handmade tie-dyed rainbow t-shirts with the 27-year anniversary of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in mind.

"The women's soccer match on 'National Coming Out Day' was really exciting and it was nice to see so many people there excited to celebrate that day," said AAU OutLoud! Club President Casey Bouknight. "It was awesome to have so many students take the 'Athlete Ally Pledge' together and stand up to tackling homophobia and transphobia in sports. It's a really powerful and important message and I'm glad we were able to share it."

Dramatically increasing its highest single-day attendance from previous years, Academy of Art's first-ever LGBT awareness event went beyond those in the stands at Skyline College thanks to passionate posts across social media platforms on such an important day to the LGBT community. Through thoughtful partnerships with AAU OutLoud!, the SF LGBT Center, Athlete Ally, and Chipotle, the ART U athletic department was able to execute a memorable event that left a lasting impact on the campus and community.

Also in the fall of 2015, Academy of Art students came out to a volleyball match to enjoy another unique competitive opportunity. ART U's "Sketch Knight" challenged fans to utilize drawing materials from Blick Art and create an image reflecting a scene from the match. Though focused on artists from the School of Illustration and Graphic Design, the competition was open to anyone in attendance who tagged their photos from the match to the Urban Knights' Instagram account (@ARTU_Knights) using the hashtag #SketchKnight prior to midnight. Students selected among the top five finalists then used various social media platforms to promote their photo for one week, instructing their peers to vote for their photo via "likes."

"This year was the fourth time the athletic department hosted the 'Sketch Knight' event and it's events like this that have helped the athletics department reach an audience of students who typically aren't interested in sporting events," said De Lay. "Collaborating with the different departments on campus to utilize their artistic skills has allowed 'Sketch Knight' to be successful. We look forward to working with Illustration and Graphic Design again this year to make the event even better in 2016."

The three sketches that received the most likes after one week were named the winners (Jessi Vargas was first place on this occasion) and were announced on ART U's Instagram. First place was awarded $100 to Blick Art Materials store in San Francisco and had their name placed on the perpetual trophy that is displayed in the athletics department. Second and third place each received gift cards as well. The "Sketch Knight" contest is an ongoing, semi-annual competition that takes place during volleyball and basketball season.

The gold and silver NACMA awards ART U received this year added to last year's gold (Promotional Schedule Poster designed by Caitlin Boring, Hannah Emmett, Alisa Griggs, and Melissa Genao), silver (Interactive/Social Media), and bronze (Student Promotion) honors.