For the second time in as many years, Breathe New Hampshire has teamed with Manchester Community College’s Commercial Design and Illustration Program for a contest involving students’ designs. One student’s work will be featured on the event t-shirts for the statewide non-profit’s Annual Seacoast Bike Tour on May 17 and 18. The winning design will be determined by online voting at the respiratory health organization’s website between Friday, April 25, 2008 and noon on Tuesday, April 29. The website is www.breathenh.org.
As a class assignment, Instructor Ellen Wolper tasked the students in her Computer Illustration class with developing a graphic to be used on the event t-shirts earlier in the semester. The students enthusiastically embraced the assignment, which was left almost entirely to their creativity. The only instruction was to use Breathe New Hampshire’s logo and to develop a two color design that represented a bike tour.
Of the 15 designs submitted, three were selected as finalists and are currently featured online. Those designs belong to students, Brian Champagne, Angela Gianni, and Debra Good. “We would like to have as many people as possible vote,” said Beth D’Ovidio, Breathe New Hampshire’s Director of PR and Communications. “We are really pleased to be able to work collaboratively this way with the school. This offers the students the ability to get some practical experience with their designs. It is a win-win situation. We get a fabulous design for our event t-shirts, and the students are able to include a design that has been printed in their portfolio. The young lady whose design was selected last year actually received some job offers through the online exposure.”
“We were surprised by the huge response when we did this last year. There were hundreds of votes within a few hours of the posting,” according to Kelly Sicard, Dir. of Special Events and Volunteer Services for the non-profit. If you would like to weigh in on what design is selected, visit www.breathenh.org and vote.
The 23rd Annual Seacoast Bike Tour is open to cyclists of all abilities and features both one and two day routes. Routes range from 25 to 100 miles in length. All routes begin in Portsmouth and extend to Ogunquit, Maine. The tour is a fully supported event with rest stops, Ham Radio Operators, Medics, Massage therapists, Bike mechanics and Finish line festivities with food and live musical entertainment. For more information or to make a contribution to a rider, contact Breathe New Hampshire at 800-835-8647 or visit www.breathenh.org.
The Seacoast Bike Tour receives support from Public Service of New Hampshire, Merrill Lynch and WXRV 92.5 The River.