Students Lend Artistic Flair to Imagine RIT Promotional Effort

With a little more than a week before Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival, some Rochester Institute of Technology students are putting their signature on preparations for this inaugural event, scheduled for May 3./p>

Carly Schonberg, a fourth-year illustration major from New Rochelle, N.Y., is the winning artist of the official Imagine RIT poster contest. Earlier in the school year, all current RIT students were invited to submit designs, and 32 entries were received. Schonberg, who hopes to pursue a career in children’s books illustration, conceptualized the fusion of right-brain and left-brain outcomes to highlight the festival’s themes of innovation and creativity.

“I took a bunch of techniques I usually work with (particularly collage) and had fun with them,” she explains. “I’m very happy to have this opportunity to show that I can do a different type of illustration and still have it recognized.”

Georgi Unkovski, a second-year fine art photography major, is the creator of the festival’s YouTube video clip. Unkovski was born in New York City but is a lifelong resident of Macedonia. He was selected as the winner of a similar RIT contest that encouraged students to exploit rapidly growing interest in “viral video” to help promote the upcoming festival.

Unkovski’s video focuses on a single student actor and hundreds of crumbled pieces of newspaper. The newspaper pieces, which Unkovski explains as representing “information,” envelop the student by seeming to defy the laws of gravity.

“I believe that information is what gives birth to creativity,” he states. “The more we see and the more we experience, the more our minds have material to work with to guide our imagination and creativity.”

Schonberg and Unkovski were formally acknowledged April 25 during a pre-festival celebration on the RIT campus. Both students received a $500 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble in recognition of their achievements.

“Both Carly and Georgi are representative of the spirit and passion for innovation and creativity that burns across this campus,” says RIT President Bill Destler. “I congratulate them both, and I hope that those who are able to sample the work of these student are inspired to join us on here May 3 to see what our entire campus community has in store for visitors that day.”

Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival is poised to become the new annual kickoff to Rochester’s rich festival season. It takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 3. More than 400 interactive exhibits and displays will be featured in various locations across the RIT campus. Topics include new ideas for products and services, the creative arts, research and design projects and unique performing arts productions.

ADDITIONAL MEDIA RESOURCES:

Georgi Unkovski photo available at www.rit.edu/news/pics/Georgi_Unkovski.jpg

YouTube video clip available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPRnszKxQrU