UW-Stout video production, graphic design students win international award for Adobe Express Play

Menomonie, Wis. – A crew of video production and graphic design students at University of Wisconsin-Stout won an international 2024 D&AD New Blood Award for their advertisement geared toward Gen Z, for which they built a unique mobile gaming app from scratch.

Designers were given a selection of briefs to create an innovative branding solution set by real clients, including Adobe, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Google Fonts, IMAX, Kraft Heinz, Universal Music and more.

The UW-Stout team selected a prompt to “Make Adobe the Go-To Tool for Gen Z Creatives.” Within their one-minute video ad, they debuted the app, Adobe Express Play, a concept of their own design.

Adobe Express Play aims to teach graphic design through interaction with the mobile app, while providing a fun introduction to learn Adobe Express and Photoshop toolsets. Players receive a random daily creative prompt to complete in a short amount of time, competing with friends, anytime and anywhere.

The international ad competition for students and aspiring designers is judged by the industry’s top creatives. The Adobe Express Play team received the New Blood Awards’ Wood Pencil as the best of the year in advertising, design, craft, culture and impact. The students’ roles in the collaboration played off of their individual strengths:

• Cole Finn: director, cinematographer and editor; Mondovi
• Ella Johnson: writer, electric and graphics; Hugo, Minnesota
• Ava Hedlund: electric, sound and color correction; Rochester, Minnesota
• Doran Exline: electric, sound and graphics; Marathon

“We needed to tap into what motivates Gen Z as creators and reach them by implementing Adobe Express and Photoshop in their culture and subcultures and build their awareness of Adobe’s apps and products,” Johnson said.

“The directions we could take were endless in how we wanted to create this campaign. After going through the creative process, we decided to create a mobile game to be the center of our campaign. There was no game like Adobe Express Play before,” she said.

Adobe Express Play: Create anything, anywhere

After extensive brainstorming and research, they developed Adobe Express Play, born from more than 20 proposals. As members of Gen Z, the team had the advantage of being able to directly relate to their target market.

“We thought about what Gen Z does and doesn’t like in advertisements. They like relatability and being able to seamlessly add a fun and creative task in their everyday lives,” Hedlund said.

They also focused on one of Gen Z's main challenges in everyday life: finding cures for boredom.

“The idea that kept sticking with us was of being able to create anything, anywhere,” Finn said. “This soon sparked Ella’s idea for developing an advertising campaign around an Adobe mobile game app, and she developed the script from the idea in her head.”

Finn and Johnson finalized the script and storyboard for the commercial, ultimately choosing one that functioned like Pictionary. Johnson designed the app interface and notifications, Finn animated the assets used by players in the commercial, and Hedlund and Exline provided audio effects to complete the overall experience.

“We outlined key details, including popular Gen Z locations, actor profiles, props and storyline. Using rough draft storyboards, we mapped out our advertisement, scouted locations and cast actors,” Johnson said.

Once they hit the greenlight for production, filming took three days to compete at three different locations, including Golden Leaf Café, and featured fellow students Mia Hazen, of Bloomington, Illinois; Kyle Mialkowski, of St. Michael, Minnesota; and Ana Kanzler, of Hayward.

Everyone had a role on set to keep things moving smoothly. Postproduction involved integrating visual effects and graphic design, editing, reshoots and additional graphic elements. “This collaborative process allowed us to create a relatable but also effective campaign,” Johnson said.

“For a lot of the project, we thought we were scrambling with creative ideas until we had the idea for Adobe Express Play. Even as we were actively working, we felt lost sometimes. Sometimes it was difficult, like when we made camera movements on two tripods in a moving car,” Hedlund said. “Working together and having effective meetings really helped push our project along. When someone needed help with something, we offered our time and skills. Filming days were long but productive.”

Finn and Johnson graduated in spring 2024 and were notified of the team’s win a couple of days after graduation.

“The competition was an excellent opportunity to be provided with a professional creative brief and develop an advertising campaign from start to finish,” Finn said. “The award was the perfect way to close this chapter in my life – a five-year academic journey that was full of ups and downs. I feel it best represents what you can accomplish within a team of highly creative and motivated people in the best way,” Finn said.

Johnson thinks that as a creative person, it is important for her to take risks, develop a wide variety of unique and outside-the-box creations, and share them with those around her. “Doing this with my group during my last semester of college was rewarding, but it is also surreal to know people worldwide saw what we created and felt it deserved this award,” she said.

Power in collaboration proven in D&AD New Blood win

UW-Stout students have taken part in the D&AD competition for three years. Participation is a required assignment in the Advertising Photography and Video course. The 2024 New Blood winners were in a section taught by Assistant Professor Jonny Wheeler.

“As their instructor, I feel tremendously proud that their hard work was recognized by being awarded such a prestigious award,” Wheeler said. “Each of the group members contributed their unique skills to the project, working together to develop an advertising campaign from the whiteboard to the final screening. They’ve proven the undeniable power in collaboration.”

Video production Program Director Keif Oss called the team’s recognition “impressive. Our students achieved the same award level as the Miami Ad School, one of the top 10 ad schools worldwide.

“The video production program provides students with applied experiences that result in portfolio work resembling the fields they may work in,” he added. “The New Bloods Awards provide a platform to legally use major brands’ IP and address-specific messaging goals through the audio/visual platforms of video and photography. Participating in the D&AD competition connects students’ work to the pipeline of a multichannel campaign spanning design and marketing fields.”

D&AD is a nonprofit advertising and design association founded in England and Wales in 1962. Its mission is to stimulate, enable and award creative excellence in design and advertising. Its awards are recognized globally as the ultimate creative accolade.

Unspooled Film and Animation Festival

UW-Stout will host the annual Unspooled Film and Animation Festival on Saturday, May 10, and Sunday, May 11, in Harvey Hall Theatre. The two-day festival will feature incredible short films and animations, showcasing the talents of students and professionals from both near and far. Screenings will take place from 4 to 9 p.m. Everyone is welcome to come and be inspired by creative stories from around the world. Tickets will be available online.

Emerging and seasoned storytellers are invited to submit their films for consideration. Films must be received by Sunday, March 30.

UW-Stout’s School of Art and Design, one of the largest public art schools in the Midwest, offers bachelor’s degrees in animation and digital media; game design and development-art; graphic design and interactive media; illustration; industrial and product design; interior design; studio art; arts administration and entrepreneurship; fashion design and development; and video production, as well as an M.F.A. in design.

UW-Stout, a member of the Universities of Wisconsin, is Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, with a focus on applied learning, collaboration with business and industry, and career outcomes. Learn more via the FOCUS2030 strategic plan.