Two ISU graphic designers have received the award of a lifetime.

Kevin McColley and Lindsay Rohlfsen, both juniors in graphic design, received an ADDY for a project they worked on last fall.

An ADDY award is the advertising world’s equivalent to a Grammy, said Theresa DeWitt, academic adviser in art and design.

Honors were given to the group for Best of Category for Local Categories in the 2002 ADDY Awards held in Cedar Rapids on Jan. 18. The ADDY Awards- Excellence in Advertising is conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation.

“It’s a very well respected organization, particularly in regards to journalism and advertising,” said Deb Satterfield, assistant professor of art and design.

McColley and Rohlfsen worked with Kelly McGee, junior in graphic design, on the project. McColley submitted the project for award consideration. McGee, who is also a Daily graphic designer, chose not to have her name entered with the project, McColley said.

Satterfield placed students in teams of three to work on one of the semester’s largest projects. Each student group was asked to draw the name of a company from a hat.

After each person had selected a company, the group had to pick one of the three to begin research. The group chose AstraZeneca, an internationally based pharmaceutical company, as their primary target.

“This assignment was a major campaign in their education,” Satterfield said. “It was really their first experience to work extensively with the idea of creating a visual identity for some company or entity. They had to do a rather extensive advertising campaign, or packet of information about their company.”

Satterfield said McColley planned to enter the project for the award.

“He knew the deadline was actually right after we turned the assignment in. I graded it pretty much the same day,” she said. “Kevin literally drove out to my house and waited in my living room while I graded it.”

McColley managed to make the deadline, which was Nov. 29. He also represented the group at the award ceremony.

“I had no idea what kind of award we would be receiving,” McColley said

“It was awesome going through. A lot of advertising companies came up to me and said they found the project pretty impressive because only one other student’s presentation ended up getting a pretty good award.”

Satterfield said she encourages other students to take the initiative to enter competitions.

“If [students] win an award like this while attending college, prospective employers will notice they were serious about their field of study,” she said.