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Prize-winning pages: Student’s spread earns national acclaim in Best of Collegiate Design 17

College Media Advisers awarded a UH student first place in the Best of Collegiate Design contest during its annual conference in Austin over the weekend.

Media production senior Mariah Davis won first place in the Magazine Contents Page category for her design of the table of contents from the 2008 Transitions magazine.

‘This contents page is both highly functional and visually striking. (We) get a good idea of what is featured in the publication with the brief descriptions, and typography is clean and uncluttered,’ contest judges said on the CMA website about Davis’ design.’ ‘ ‘The use of small, dotted lines to connect the subject to items found in a student’s room was a great idea and executed well.’

Creative writing junior Stan Le also won Honorable Mention in the Magazine Feature Spread category.

There were 1,281 entries from 77 colleges, according to the CMA Web site.

The design began with a photoshoot to capture the main image on the left page.

‘The concept is that the photo is a visual representation of the contents of the magazine itself,’ Davis said. ‘For the photo, we set up my apartment to make it look like a typical dorm room. We got a Houston banner, a violin, books, maps, a stuffed cougar and items like that.’

Davis planned the pages with a professional attitude and idea.

‘For the layout, I drew the lines from the photo to the corresponding teaser on the right page for a story that is in the magazine. For example, the Houston banner was connected to the story about school spirit.’

Ruth Rodriguez, editor of the 2008 Transitions magazine, compiled the content, and Maurico Lazo photographed the staged scene.

Student Publications print production manager Matt Dulin entered students’ work to showcase their quality and design efforts.

‘Mariah’s contents page was probably the most well-put together page in the entire magazine,’ Dulin said.

Davis designed the page with an exact vision for implementation.

‘Sometimes good designs are an accident,’ Dulin said. ‘But with this page, it is clear that it was very well thought out. This is something planned, and only a professional would have thought it out the way she did. It is visually striking and well executed.’

The Daily Cougar has been able to provide hands-on experiences for students such as Davis to gain working experience.

‘Working at The Daily Cougar has been the best experience of my college career,’ Davis said. ‘I’ve learned more there than in any design class. It gives me great pieces – that have actually been published – to add to my portfolio, which is more than a class can do.’

Dulin said he hopes to keep up the level of work with UH student publications.

‘We are continuing the tradition of persuing excellence, which is incredibly difficult with any student endeavor,’ Dulin said.

Davis is passing on her award-winning design skills to production employees.

‘It’s nice to have employees who look up to me, and I am able to train them and share the work that we do here,’ Davis said. ‘Hopefully, they will get as much out of this job as I have in the past three years.’

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