San Luis Obispo – Brandon Lutze, a Cal Poly Graphic Communication senior, took first place in the Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF) 2010 Student Design Competition in the Post Secondary category.

The contest challenged students to create marketing materials designed to promote next year’s GRAPH EXPO 2011—the largest and most innovative industry exposition and conference for the graphic communication industry in the Americas.

The entry included creating a theme for GRAPH EXPO 2011; designing artwork to support the theme; and using the artwork to produce a finished marketing product.

Lutze and his Cal Poly adviser, professor Lorraine Donegan, received a two-day paid trip to attend GRAPH EXPO 2010 in Chicago. Lutze was presented with a $2,000 check during GRAPH EXPO 2010’s Career Awareness Day for his poster on the theme of “Rethink Print.”

Cal Poly student Kathleen Lee took third place and received an award of $1,000 for her poster on “Print Is Alive.”

“Both Brandon and Kathleen are talented students who understand the technology behind the design of a marketing piece,” Donegan said. “Brandon’s poster focused on the theme ‘Rethink Print,’ which captures the essence of how print and the graphic communication industry are constantly changing.”

Donegan’s students are frequent award winners in a variety of national competitions, said Harvey Levenson, head of Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department.

“At Cal Poly we educate students in the full gamut of the industry they will join upon graduation—design, production, management, marketing, distribution, and so on,” Levenson said. “It is this combination that provides the insights needed to understand what makes for not only a well-designed piece, but one that will have a practical application and meet its intent.”