American Academy of Art Students Capture Unprecedented Top Three Prizes at ICMAD's Young Designers' Competition in NYC.

Three AAA students set record / swept the 10th annual Young Designers' Competition sponsored by the Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors (ICMAD) in New York City.

CHICAGO -- The American Academy of Art (www.aaart.edu) announced three of its students won the top three prizes awarded by the Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors (ICMAD) at the 10th annual Young Designers' Competition awards dinner held September 16, 2009, in New York City. Sixty students from six prestigious art and fashion/design schools from around the U.S. (10 from each school), including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, competed for the awards.

This was the first time all three winners came from one school.

All three Academy student winners are juniors, expecting to graduate in 2010.

First-place winner was Meghan Seal. A design major, she is studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis on graphic communications. Seal is from West Dundee, IL.

Second-place winner, Dawid Tylka, arrived in the United States from Poland when he was four years old. He expects to freelance as a graphic artist upon graduation. Tylka enjoys discovering different culture and enjoys painting, skateboarding and snowboarding.

Third-place winner, Horacio Acevedo, is majoring in graphic design with a concentration in graffiti art. He is influenced by and incorporates strong influences from hip-hop culture. Upon graduation, Acevedo hopes to work on new designs and break dancing to create a new style that will capture people's interests.

"This is quite an honor for the American Academy of Art and speaks volumes about the caliber of student studying here," stated Richard Otto, the Academy's president. "We congratulate Meghan, Dawid and Horacio, and know this is just the start of many great accomplishments in their young and successful careers."

Participating schools included: The American Academy of Art, Chicago, IL; The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York, NY; Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), Los Angeles, CA; Miami International University of Art and Design, Miami, FL; and Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA.

According to the ICMAD: The Young Designers' Competition, created by ICMAD in 1999, showcases the design talent in personal-care packaging at the university level. The goal of the competition is to encourage and develop young creative talent that will build the future of the cosmetics industry. The ICMAD and member Mana Products provide competing students with a backer card and color cosmetic components.

The students were asked to create a product that could be sold through for mass-market drugstores. Judging criteria for packaging include uniqueness, ability to be reproduced economically and use and storage accessibility. The competition changes each year depending on the product category and medium selected.

A prestigious panel of cosmetic and personal-care packaging design experts judged the competition. Judges included: John Collier of Susan M. Rafaj Marketing Services, Santo Fareri of SRF Design Ltd, Kenneth Noskin of Ideate, Gregg Lukasiewicz of Lukasiewicz Design, Inc. and Rick Prater of Rick Prater Design.

Robb Akridge, Ph.D., who is co-founder and vice president of clinical research at Pacific Bioscience Laboratories, presented the awards.

ABOUT ICMAD

ICMAD is a nonprofit trade association that serves 650 company members. It is dedicated to providing programs and services to those creative, innovative cosmetic companies to help them succeed in the rapidly changing, highly competitive cosmetics and personal-care industries.

ABOUT THE ACADEMY

The American Academy of Art has a fairly illustrious history and has trained and educated some of the nation's most prominent and prolific fine artists and illustrators since its founding in 1923. Alumni include comic book and graphic novel wunderkind Alex Ross; Haddon Sundblom, who gave us the American version of Santa Claus for Coca Cola; and numerous other well- and lesser-known artists. In 2008, artist T. Allen Lawson, yet another Academy alumnus, received a commission from Laura Bush to paint the Administration's final holiday card. The original painting for the card has since become part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Institute.

The American Academy of Art (www.aart.edu) a four-year, accredited Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program in the following disciplines: Illustration, Design, Multimedia / Web Design, 3-D Modeling / Animation, Life Drawing, Painting (oil painting specialization), and Painting (watercolor painting specialization). It emphasizes the classical tradition, reinforced by real-world projects taught by distinguished instructors - all of whom are working artists as well as full-time teachers. The Academy not only guides and trains students to be exemplary artists, it also connects students to valuable resources to help with their transition to real-world careers upon graduation. The Academy is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association and the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology.