Two advertising seniors are celebrating successful projects this year…including one that’s garnered national recognition.
In March, Chloe Henshaw and Kelly Hickey each received a district-level Gold ADDY award from the American Advertising Federation. Hickey’s entry later advanced to the national level, where she was awarded a Silver ADDY. Her award was presented during the AAF national gala held May 31 in Salt Lake City.
Hickey’s project began in the spring of 2023 during her sophomore year. Her professor, Maral Zakharia, asked the class to create a music poster designed for the Royal Albert Hall in London. Hickey entitled hers “Meet Josh: A Five-String Prodigy.” For imagery, she found a photo of a guitarist from a public domain site. The text, however, proved more challenging.
“The words were a very long and difficult process,” Hickey explained. “I essentially had to create a typeface made from different shapes and then bend the Helvetica font the best I could in certain areas where I could not make a letter out of shapes. Then I used shading, shadows, and the marker tool to make it appear that the letters were going through the word “Josh.” I selected the color red because it made a bold statement.”
Her design took on a few rough forms before reaching the finished product. Guided by Zakharia’s feedback, Hickey steered the visual elements towards a look she might not have otherwise chosen on her own.
“At first I was being too shy with where the font was (located),” Hickey said. “She encouraged me to be bold, which is why the font now takes up almost the entire page.”
Henshaw’s ADDY entry featured a beer promotional project called “Venom Brews.” Her project began in late 2023 as a class assignment to create a new beer brand complete with a name, logo, packaging design and accompanying advertisements. Henshaw sought to create the feel of a luxury beer. In doing her research, she found there were fewer high-end beer labels as compared with certain liquor brands.
“I wanted to fill that gap with my beer design,” Henshaw said. “I wanted this brand to go off of the idea of 'reaching for gold' and striving for success. I chose a very dark, almost black, grey and a pop of gold for colors as it fit the brand tone. I wanted the gold to be dripping or liquified to represent a luxury feel. I decided to pull in a crown element to show this. I also liked the idea of something bold and 'biting' for the design, like something poisonous. That is when I came up with the name Venom and made illustrations of an octopus, one of the most venomous animals.”
Like Hickey, Henshaw turned to Professor Maral Zakharia for technical advice.
“I showed her updates throughout the project and she gave me a lot of suggestions throughout,” said Henshaw. “She helped me a lot with learning new skills in design in general, as I’d only been designing for about three months at that point and had a lot of learning and growing to do.”
Kelly Hickey and Chloe Henshaw will each graduate with advertising degrees in Spring 2025. Both have set their sights on joining an advertising industry where they can build their design skills. Hickey hopes to launch her career in Chicago.
“My dream is to work as an art director or as a designer,” she said. “Alongside advertising, I work for the MSU football coaches video team. If a spot in the NFL opened up for advertising or video I would go there in a heartbeat! I love sports and I love advertising, so a world where I could incorporate both would be amazing.”
Henshaw is also preparing for her career in a creative agency. She wants to be part of projects that have real impact.
“My main goal is to just be able to continue my creative work and designing,” Henshaw said. “I know there are a lot of different opportunities and types of work I can do down the line and I am just excited to see what is out there and what all I can do in the future.”
By Kevin Lavery