Twenty-three banners, made from materials ranging from bubble wrap to silk, are hanging in two campus buildings as part of a College of Design celebration. Banners 2000 is the third time in over 20 years that a banner exhibit has been held at Iowa State. “It’s sort of a welcome back to students for the fall semester,” said Co-director Cindy Gould. The exhibit is in conjunction with the International Visual Literacy Association’s Annual Conference Oct. 11-14 at Iowa State. Until Oct. 31, 23 banners by 20 different artists are being displayed – 18 in the College of Design Building and five in Howe Hall. The banners have been on display since Aug. 7. Students submitted the banners last spring, and faculty chose the 23 banners. Traditionally, banners are rectangular-shaped with a two-sided format, but the requirements for Banners 2000 were that banners had to be between 10 and 50 feet long, and the weight could not exceed 25 pounds. Several of the banners on display are three-dimensional or are presented as a series of images. Other forms include flags, streamers or pennants. Techniques range from batik to screen printing on materials such as silk, cotton or bubble wrap. “At the exhibit, I am showing more of a three-dimensional banner,” said ISU graduate Gina Marie Amendola. “It consists of silk that I hand-painted, unique string, various fabrics, wooden dowels and hoops, beads and embroidery floss.” She said the banner was complicated to prepare. “It took quite a while to figure out how everything was going to work together,” Amendola said. An exhibition reception will be held Sept. 9 in conjunction with the dedication of the college’s Kocimski Auditorium. Each department from the College of Design will be contributing money for awards that will be given for “visually outstanding” work. This is the third international banner exhibition held at Iowa State. The first banner exhibition was held in 1979, and the second was in 1984. Gould, assistant professor of art and design said Banners 200 was a huge collaborative effort. “The exhibit took the efforts of many people and over a year and a half of planning. I would anticipate it happening again in the future,” Gould said.