AIGA considers Dakota Days sweatshirts a success
As the Dakota Days buzz dies down and the memories start to fade, students are able to immortalize this year’s D-Days with the Verm Drinking Team sweatshirts.
For the last six years, the American Institute for Graphic Arts (AIGA) chapter at USD
This year, AIGI sold more than 350.
Senior Tyson Schultz is the president of AIGA and a creator of the 2019 design. He and Ben Salestrom, AIGA treasurer, collaborated on the design, which features a cartoon coyote.
“[The process] varies year to year. This year I wanted to get the design done before the end of summer to be safe,” Schultz said. “It was definitely a personal challenge to create different designs.”
Before finalizing the design, Schultz and Salestrom used Instagram polls to find out which design students were looking for.
With help from students and AIGA members, the team settled on the final design with ties back to past designs.
“In 2016, there is an older, cartoony [Charlie Coyote] where he is holding a six-pack and that was really the basis for this year,” Schultz said.
Schultz said that 2019 was a successful year for AIGA with help from their social media marketing. The campaign featured a twist on Calvin Klein’s “In my Calvin’s” ads. The posters and designs were created by AIGA’s Vice President, Brianna Olson.
“We really wanted to make a push with a campaign and we were really successful with our marketing this year,” Schultz said.
With the help of their marketing campaign, the sweatshirts turned out to be popular among students such as Freshman Sara Lien.
“I love the cartoon design and the AIGA’s posts were so fun,” Lien said.
Sweatshirt sales fund many of AIGA’s expenses, including an annual spring trip to cities like Minneapolis and Denver for students to discover different careers in design.
“A lot of the profit goes towards our spring trip. It also goes to help other miscellaneous projects year to year,” Schultz said.
AIGA has set up a TeeSpring site for those wanting to purchase sweatshirts.
