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MSU graphics art student from Helena wins international design competition
December 30, 2002 -- Carol Schmidt
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| Onawa Linden |
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Onawa Linden, a Montana State University art student who has delighted Bozeman and Helena residents with her innovative holiday store window paintings, has won a gold medal in an international student design competition sponsored by the Agfa Gevaert Group.
Linden, a senior from Helena majoring in graphic design, is one of just 14 winners from around the world, and two from the U.S. selected from 1,000 contest entries in Agfa's 2002 Young Creatives Competition.
"I've never won a contest before so I was thrilled," Linden said. "It gave me a new confidence. I'm definitely going to enter other contests.... I'm already looking."
The theme of the competition sponsored by the Belgium-based photography, graphic and printing supply conglomerate was "Time of Your Life." Entrants were instructed to design packaging -- both a box and a container -- for a watch and submit it online. Linden said she thought she would do "something different and funky. I never thought I would win."
Linden's winning design was "Sushi Time" and incorporated a contemporary graphic that looks both like a flower and a roll of sushi seen from the side.
"I used a sushi theme because I love sushi," said Linden, who learned to like and make sushi as a waitress at John Bozeman's Bistro, one of three jobs she holds down, also working as a designer at MSU's SUB graphics and painting designs on windows. Linden will win a specially-made watch packaged in one of the winning designs and a graphic design book as well as a commendation.
This is the second time an MSU student has placed in the finals of the Agfa Young Creatives Contest in the last two years, according to Stephanie Newman, MSU graphic design professor. Former MSU Bobcat football tight end A.J. Stoneburner, a student in MSU professor Anne Garner's design class, was the only American among 27 winners in Agfa's Young Creatives Competition in 2001.
"I'm really pleased that twice in a row an MSU student has won this contest, and both were the, or one of the, only Americans selected," said Newman, who used the competition as a class exercise for her intermediate graphics design class. "I think it speaks really well for our students in the MSU School of Art, and especially the Graphic Design area."
Linden, whose father is the minister at the Rocky Mountain Church of Christ in Helena, credits Sandy Casey, her art teacher at Helena High, for fanning her interest in art. While she aspires to one day illustrate books, she is getting her start illustrating store windows during the holidays with her business is "Windows by Dezign(cq)," which is in its fourth year. One of her favorite designs was a Grinch mural on the former Music to Go store in Helena. This year some of her designs can be seen at the McKenzie River Pizza and Aleworks Restaurants and East Side Diner in Bozeman, or McDonalds or Vans Thriftway in Helena.
To see Linden's design go to: http://www.agfa.com/aycc/2002/
Contact: Stephanie Newman (406) 994-2340
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