Friday Night at the Fights, an annual amateur boxing expo at Ohio University that was revived three years ago, is sponsoring a poster contest to promote the event.
The student-run event is coordinated by sports administration graduate program and serves as one of its major fundraisers. Although in past years organizers have waited to advertise the fights until the spring, this year a campus-wide poster contest is taking place in order to publicize the May 13 event at The Convo.
I wanted to create some awareness on campus because it was gone for a long time and some people forget about it and a lot of people don't know about it
said graduate student Paul Warner, marketing and public relations coordinator. He said the posters will be especially good for advertising to younger classes unfamiliar with the event.
Warner collaborated with Don Adleta, professor and chair of the graphic design program, to recruit top graphic design students. The contest provides an opportunity for aspiring graphic designers to add to their portfolio.
Seniors in Adleta's graphic design practicum class have been working on several posters each for the last few weeks. After brainstorming together, they then broke off to pursue their own designs.
The contestants were given some basic information to include, and told to exclude violence or blood in their designs. This eliminated about half of their ideas, since violence attracts attention said fifth-year senior Brett Reed, who is entering in the contest.
I didn't want a poster with a lot of blood on it Warner said. That's really not what we're trying to promote. It's about the competition; it's about the excitement.
The posters have some commonalities, such as sans serif font, which gets the point across best
said fifth-year senior Robyn Burke. They also made the word fight the focus of most of their posters.
All of these posters are more playful
not so serious
said Matt Tucker, a sixth-year graphic design student.
Adleta thought about entering the contest himself, but I have no chance
he said.
In addition to five free tickets to the fight, the winner of the contest will receive a $200 gift certificate to Follett University Bookstore, the title sponsor of Friday Night at the Fights. The bookstore will serve as one of the polling stations for Athens residents to choose the best out of the poster finalists.
The winning poster will be mass-produced in Athens and the surrounding area.
Friday Night at the Fights was something that when I went to school here back in the '80s that I enjoyed going to
said Follett's store manager Todd Wood.
Friday Night at the Fights attracted 3,000 fans last year -the biggest crowd since it was first held in 1974. This year, the goal is 5,000, Warner said.
The poster contest is open to anyone. The deadline is Feb. 14. For more information visit www.fridaynightatthefights.com.
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