St. Clair College Graphic Design student Megan Saxton's clean and simple illustration of a Gingerbread House was the winning entry for the cover of The S'Aints' 2019 CD to commemorate the band's upcoming holiday concert.
Since the design had to have a Christmas theme, around the title of Strike Hunger, Megan thought immediately about incorporating an iconic holiday symbol into the illustration.
"I was trying to think of food items, so I thought gingerbread would be a cool thing."
The previous eight CD covers were designed by Art Barron, the Director of Student Services and a graphic designer in his own right. But this year, S'Aints drummer Jeff Burrows suggested getting the graphic design students involved.
The project was presented to students during a weekly lab, where they are assigned real-life projects and given a full day to complete them, as they would if they were on the job.
In this case, students were given the assignment at 9 a.m. and had to hand it in by 4 p.m. It had to have a Christmas theme and could include photos or illustrations.
"It does get stressful because you have to think of the idea and complete it in that amount of time," Megan said. "So there's not a lot of time to really think about what you're going to do because you need time to complete it."
For her winning work, the 20-year-old, third-year student received six CDs and tickets to the upcoming Dec. 20 Sleighing Hunger concert at Caesars Colosseum. But more importantly, it will be something else to add to her resume.
Megan, who will graduate in the spring, is already working in the graphic design industry at Running Count, a local company that designs race bibs for teams and events across North America.