Seven Klein College of Media and Communication students from the Department of Advertising and Public Relations took home three Louix awards this semester. The annual awards were distributed by One Club Philly, formerly known as the Art Directors Club of Philadelphia. The Louix awards honor creativity within the Philadelphia advertising and marketing community, and are among the city’s top honors in the field.
Six of the students — Lauren Bottino (KLN ‘20, advertising and art direction), Leah Hillegas (KLN ‘19, advertising, applied communication, public relations), Nicholas Hopeck (KLN ‘18, advertising), Vanessa Masciocch (KLN ‘19, advertising), Shane Terry (KLN ‘19, advertising) and Caroline Welch (KLN ‘19, advertising) — won the integrated campaign award and the award honoring best out-of-home advertising for transit or billboard signage for their combined efforts on a marketing campaign they produced in Stacey Harpster’s campaigns class for campus neighbor Tree House Books.
Tree House Books was founded in 2005 as a giving library and literacy center designed to grow the reading community in North Philadelphia. Harpster said she typically tries to find a non-profit organization that will benefit from working with her classes.
“I worked in the industry for 13 years and at various ad agencies,” Harpster said, “so I kind of bring that perspective to the classroom for this particular course.”
The student group, called “neue,” said the “Meet Your Neighbor” campaign intended to increase brand awareness and attract volunteers to Tree House Books. Neue wanted to market to Temple students and people who live near campus. Students spent the entire semester crafting their campaigns and eventually presented their pitches to leaders from Tree House Books.
“We wanted to raise awareness to who they are and show how accessible they are to the Temple audience,” said Welch, the copywriter for the team.
For Hillegas, who was the account director for the team and will be graduating in May, this is her first major award.
“It’s weird to say I’m an award-winning advertising student,” she said. “It still doesn’t feel real.”
Drake Masters (KLN ‘19, advertising, art direction) won the food photography award for his submission in response to Heinz Ketchup’s challenge to make ketchup the main meal rather than a side.
Initially, it was hard for Masters to visualize how to prepare the ketchup-centric meal. While thinking of ways to handle the challenge, he thought of the way sauces are prepared at sushi restaurants. He also studied other visual elements of food service.
“I started studying plating design,” he said. “I used different patterns like doing a swirl, one where it gives you the impression of something that was once a cup, one [that] has you drawing lines like you’d hope to run a fork through it.”
Everything in his image was set around the ketchup. Hamburgers, sausages, and more were placed without plates next to the the main course.
“The emphasis was the idea that the ketchup is the spotlight, and you’ll grab your hamburgers and your sausages as an afterthought,” he said.
Masters, who will be graduating in May, has been working as a photographer for eight years. Prior to that, he was in the U.S. Army for six years.
Assistant professor Kathy Mueller also represented the Department of Advertising and PR. She was a nominee in the professional category of packaging for her work creating packaging for Sip-N-Glo Juicery Cleanse products. Sip-N-Glo Juicery is a Philadelphia-based smoothie bar focusing on health and wellness products.
Mueller graduated from the Tyler School of Art with a master’s degree in graphic and interactive design in 2014. She has served as an assistant professor at Klein College since 2010.
The Louix Awards were handed out Feb. 28 at the Sugarhouse Casino in Philadelphia.