SCAD graduate wins poster contest
By Emma Durham
On Jan. 27 SCAD graduate Rylan Francis won the Legends of Golf poster design contest. The competition was sponsored and judged by Liberty Mutual and SCAD. The results of the contest, which was open to all SCAD students, were announced at a ceremony this past Wednesday.
Francis, who graduated from SCAD with a B.A. in graphic design in May 2009, was excited to win the award but unable travel from his current home in Austin, Texas to attend the ceremony. He had accepted a job as a graphic designer for an Austin-based company and moved almost immediately after graduating.
Liberty Mutual awarded Francis a $1000 scholarship in recognition of his work and his poster design will be used to advertise this spring’s Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf Tournament, which is held annually at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa. The event is part of PGA’s Champions Tour, in which all the golfers are over the age of 50.
Francis’ poster features a collage of famous Savannah landmarks, such as the Talmadge Bridge and City Hall, mixed with recognizable golf symbols, including a golfer in action, a scorecard and 18 golf flags. He said the design was influenced by “the imperfection and textual feel that old screen-printed posters had… mainly old 70s concert posters and boxing events.”
Finding inspiration for a design promoting the generally dignified and quiet sport of golf in posters advertising decidedly loud events like concerts and boxing might seem risky, but with the help of his classmates and professor, Francis decided to take that chance. He stated that he “figured they were either going to love or hate the rough look. Professor Baker urged me to go forward and do it.”
The risk was well worth it, and reaffirmed the pro-active philosophy that Rylan Francis learned during his time at SCAD, where he “found throughout all my classes [that] I needed to just work hard and keep trying new things – even if it could fail miserably. And now as a designer, I find the same rule applies.”
