Graphic design competition keeps SDSU rivalry alive

USD and South Dakota State face off on the football field Saturday afternoon, but the two schools are prefacing the matchup in a completely different realm.

USD’s American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) will compete with SDSU in the Design Jam Color Clash at the University Center in Sioux Falls on Thursday. The graphic design competition is in its second year, but this is the first AIGA is participating. 

The objective of the competition is to beat out competitors until one remains. Each round is 12 minutes long with an unknown prompt. During the round, the designer must create an image within the prompt.

Tyson Schultz, senior president of AIGA, helped usher AIGA into the competition after learning about the event last year. He said prompts are meant to challenge the design teams but keep the competition fun.

“One of the (prompts last year) was to design a wine bottle with Comic Sans within 15 minutes and try to make it look good,” Schultz said. 

Each team has its own competitors and the individuals rack up points for their team based on performance.

“It is a standard bracket situation where our individual team members compete to try to beat State,” Schultz said. 

For their lineup, AIGA is bringing four seniors and four juniors and sophomores and encourage its other members to come as spectators to the event.

“Our computers will be connected to projectors so that the spectators can see our process as we design,” Schultz said.

Professionals also attend the competition to build connections with schools. Schultz said he hopes the competition will continue to grow in coming years.

“Hopefully, in the future, this will become a bigger event with more schools, but it’s fun to keep the rivalry alive,” Schultz said. 

Even though the event may be high-pressured, Schultz said the AIGA designers are using their skills to win.

“We get to pick about half of the prompts, so that is something that we are definitely going to take advantage of going into the competition,” Schultz said. 

Schultz and Salestrom said they hope to maintain a stronger bond with SDSU despite the infamous rivalry.

“The other designers at State are going to be our future peers and coworkers, so it’s important to reach over the SDSU and USD rivalry and create connections,” Schultz said.

Despite the friendliness, Schultz and Salestrom said they’re confident in a victory.

“We really want to emphasize that it is all fun and games, but we will probably showboat when we beat SDSU,” Schultz said.