Pair earns wins in PSAID poster design contest

April 30, 2019

The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Center for International Disaster Information (USAID CIDI).

Junior Olivia Cardinale won first place in the print poster design category, and sophomore Danielle Kaply won the print category for the People’s Choice award.

The goal of the contest is to inform the public that when disaster strikes, it is better to donate cash rather than items like clothes or bottled water.

According to USAID, “cash donations have substantially greater positive impacts on international disaster relief than material donations.”

Cardinale and Kaply used their ​skills in the COMM 329 Advertising/Public Relations design course to communicate the organization’s mission.

Cardinale said she was inspired by the Mahatma Ghandi quote “Be the change” for her design.

“I thought it was super clever and put my own spin on it,” she said.

Kaply said she was moved by the images PSAID shared with the class of piles of clothing left behind following public response to the Syrian Crisis. 

“I immediately thought of my copious piles of laundry that fall out of my hamper and clutter my room, which led me to come up with the tagline “Help, don’t hamper,” she said.

Danielle Kaply earned enough votes to win the People’s Choice category.

Cardinale, Kaply, and another student, Hannah Foster, were all finalists for the People’s Choice category. Their professor, Jessica Brown, encouraged them to reach out to friends and family to vote for their designs. Cardinale said she and her family shared the voting link on Facebook. Kaply said she owed a big thank you to her mom who asked coworkers and friends to vote for her.

This is the third time Loyola students have placed in the PSAid contest and the second first-place win for the school as a result of the work done in the COMM 329 course. Cardinale said she was proud of her win and the work she has done in the class. She also said entering the competition was significant to her. 

“Working on this design was especially important to me since I want to work for mission-based organizations like USAID CIDI,” Cardinale said.

To view the winning entries, click here.