UWG Art Student Wins the AJC Peachtree T-shirt Design Contest

For the second year in a row, runners who finished the AJC Peachtree Road Race received a T-shirt designed by a University of West Georgia art student.

Jessica Ferguson’s design – a mix of red, orange, white and yellow – graced the 60,000 T-shirts printed for Atlanta runners. Another 3,000 shirts were printed for runners in the Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan editions of the race.

Ferguson, 22, a senior art major with a pre-medical illustration concentration, said she was “shocked…. really happy and excited” when she received the phone call telling her she was the winner.

Allison Bennett, who graduated from UWG in May, won the T-shirt design contest in 2010.

“I’m extremely proud,” said Clint Samples, assistant professor of art. Samples uses the Peachtree design contest to teach his students about the creative process and how to use the Adobe Illustrator software.

“To do this once is great. To do this twice, it’s pretty amazing,” Samples said. “These are students who are competing with professionals -- graphic designers and business owners. They are not only competing with them, but their work is getting noticed. To be in that company is quite an accomplishment.”

The wins by Ferguson and Bennett continue an amazing run of success by UWG students in the design contest.

Two of Ferguson’s classmates, Barbie Klimaszewski and Alyssa Chitwood, were among the five finalists in this year’s competition. Chitwood submitted two designs. One – a peach created by words associated with the race -- was chosen for the shirts that race volunteers wore this year.

In 2010, four UWG students were among the five finalists and two students were finalists in 2009 - giving UWG nine of the past 15 finalists.

Two other students in this year’s class also fared well. Participants in the Atlanta Track Club’s 11-week In-Training for Peachtree program wore a design -- a red, white and blue running shoe in motion- - created by Mary Schanzle-Stack, an interior design major.

The stylized peach in red, white and blue created by Lisa Bailey, an art education major, was on T-shirts sold at the Peachtree Health & Fitness Expo on July 2 and 3.

“Hopefully this well serve as a gateway to what we are doing here in the art department and the college,” Samples said.