Students bring home heaps of awards at the ADDYs

Several Troy University students won awards at the Montgomery and Dothan Advertising Federation (ADDY) competitions. In total, 12 silver, nine gold, five Judges’ Choice, two Best of Show and Student Designer of the Year Award in Montgomery were earned.  

Troy alumnus Stuart Blake, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, was named Student Designer of the Year in Montgomery in addition to receiving Judges’ Choice and gold for both his “Iteration” Campaign and gold for his “Double Life” music video. 

According to Blake, his music video was about giving viewers enjoyment while focusing on how OCD and perfectionism can make you feel stuck or obsessed, something he personally struggles with.  

“I was able to bring out a personal level in that film, and I really aimed to have viewers relate to the main character on a deeper level,” Blake said. “It was mostly geared towards people who really struggle with OCD, or are in the creative world, and just feel stuck with where they are and how to move on from that. 

“I've always struggled with OCD and imposter syndrome. Oftentimes I feel stuck with where I am as a creative, and ironically, this film was an outlet for me to be able to express myself creatively, but also express issues that I deal with daily.” 

Blake said his project had several changes in story, name, script and production, requiring several meetings with advisors to fine tune it all. 

“My film originally started as something completely different,” Blake said. “I wanted to create something that was more about the obsession with an art, then it was about OCD and dealing with perfectionism. 

“As I began to do some research and watch more movies leading up to my thesis course, I started to realize that my heart lay more in confronting that issue than disguising it as something else.” 

According to Blake, the project took about three and a half months to complete and, although it was not designed specifically for the ADDY Awards, he did use certain elements with that competition in mind.  

“I really tried to use lots of interesting and dynamic typography to match the feeling and the vibe of my film that I was going for,” Blake said. “One reason I think it did so well is that everything was cohesive, from the posters to the Blu-ray cover to the film itself.” 

Illeana Lampon, a senior graphic design and English major from Enterprise, Alabama, won gold for her public service announcement (PSA) about postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which her sister was diagnosed with. 

According to Lampon, her project was a 60-second stop-motion PSA raising awareness in a short and simple fashion.  

Lampon described her creative process as difficult at times, pondering different formats and story lines before settling on the phrase “Got Salt,” suggested by her friend, as the foundation for her PSA similar to the well-known “Got Milk” campaign.  

The creation was time consuming as Lampon used salt to spell out sentences and wiped the salt to create transitions. Then, when played in reverse, it gave the impression that the sentences were being poured out in salt.  

Lampon had no intention of submitting her project to the ADDY awards, but with encouragement from her professor Chris Stagl, assistant chair of art and design, she did.  

“My teacher, Chris Stagl, at the end of the project gave me some advice about how to improve the credit section, which I was having difficulty keeping cohesive with the rest of the video,” Lampon said. “At the end of the conversation he said, ‘Do that, and you'll win an ADDY,’ so, when the calls for ADDY submissions came out, I entered.” 

According to Lampon, winning an ADDY led her to be more confident in her work and helped her realize how much she enjoys video work and stop motion graphics.  

In addition to Blake and Lampon, several students received awards including Jose Garcia and Jessica Fleischmann, who each received gold and Judges Choice in Montgomery. 

Fleischmann also earned gold in Dothan alongside Kavarian Outlaw. Alex Ashendorf earned student gold and Best of Show in Dothan.   

“I am elated to see our students do so well in this year's ADDY awards, especially our newcomers like Ileana and Jose, who did really well in Montgomery, and our veterans like Stuart, who took home the biggest honor of the competition,” Stagl said. 

Stagl also took home professional gold and Best of Show for his “Yellow Hammer Film Festival 5” integrated campaign with Studio 207. 

“The Gold ADDY and Best of Show ADDY that I was fortunate enough to win was a collaborative effort by myself and Studio 207 - we worked together to develop a fun and exciting campaign for the fifth year of the Yellow Hammer Film Festival,” Stagl said. “The creative work that gets recognized at this level is truly a labor of love type of project. 

“I believe the time involved with any of these projects is well into the 50–100-hour range.

Many times, creatives get overlooked because it doesn't necessarily take a ton of time to ‘make’ something digitally. 

“However, it's the concepting, thinking, sketching, designing, testing and editing that goes unnoticed.”