Media Contact:
Jack Mello
jack.mello@gmail.com
Cell 201-981-5617

Art Directors Club Presents Grandmasters Awards to Four Distinguished Educators

NEW YORK, October 20, 2009 – Four distinguished educators who have inspired generations of creatives will be honored as ADC Grandmasters by the Art Directors Club (www.adcglobal.org), the premier organization for integrated media and the first global creative collective of its kind with membership in advertising, design and visual communications.

Under the theme “from one came many,” ADC Grandmasters, now in its second year,  honors current and retired US-based educators who taught for a minimum of 10 years, and whose students (past and present) are currently involved in the industry.

ADC Grandmasters honorees for 2009 are:

• Deborah Morrison, Chambers Distinguished Professor of Advertising, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications
• Tom Ockerse, Professor of Graphic Design, Rhode Island School of Design
• Hank Richardson, Design Department Head, The Portfolio Center
• Ron Seichrist, President and Founder, Miami Ad School

The 2009 ADC Grandmasters awards reception will be held on Monday, November 16, 2009, 6:00-8:00 pm, at the ADC Gallery, 106 West 29th Street, New York.  The ADC Grandmasters exhibition, featuring work by both the honorees and a sampling of their students from over the years, will run at the ADC Gallery November 17-December 4, 2009.

ADC Grandmasters is the brainchild of Bill Oberlander, executive vice president, chief operating officer, Cossette New York and an ADC past-president.  He chaired this year’s ADC Grandmasters Selection Committee, comprised of Bob Barrie, partner, executive creative director, Barrie D’Rozario Murphy; Wayne Best, executive creative director, TAXI New York; Julian Bittiner, lecturer, Yale School of Art; Rick Boyko, director, VCU Brandcenter; Kathleen Creighton, chairperson, Arts Communications Design, Pratt Institute; Ann Lemon, professor, University of Delaware; Kurt Souder, partner, executive creative director, GMMB; Richard Wilde, chairman, Advertising/Graphic Design Departments, School of Visual Arts; Laetitia E. Wolff, founding director, FutureFlair, and Ami Brophy, chief executive officer, Art Directors Club.

“ADC Grandmasters is strongly aligned with ADC’s mission to elevate the role of educators in the visual communications field, and gives us a direct connection to the schools and education community” said Brophy.  “These four honorees are being recognized for shaping the visual communications industry and mentoring many others to greatness.  They have given students the opportunity to see where their education and career can take them.”

To attend the 2009 ADC Grandmasters awards reception, please visit http://www.adcglobal.org/adc/events/calendar/. All proceeds go to funding student scholarships in the honorees’ names for their respective institutions.

Bio information for ADC Grandmasters 2009 honorees

Deborah Morrison, Chambers Distinguished Professor of Advertising, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications
Deborah Morrison's reach in advertising education extends deeply into the advertising industry, focusing on the creative side of agency life.  For 20 years, she was the leader of Texas Creative, the creative program of the University of Texas at Austin Department of Advertising, and her students have gone on to careers at leading agencies around the world.  At University of Oregon, she and colleagues have developed the Creative Strategist Model for advertising education, based on idea generation and strategic thinking for all career descriptions.

Tom Ockerse, Professor of Graphic Design, Rhode Island School of Design
A pioneer of design semiotics, Tom Ockerse has influenced generations of designers and design educators.  He started teaching at RISD in 1971, where he was head of the Graphic Design Department for 20 years and intiated the Graduate Program of Graphic Design in 1976, one of the early MFA programs in Graphic Design.  For students and colleagues alike, he illuminates the path from deconstruction to reconstruction on which designers can perceive the essential elements of language and return versed in the necessity and higher purpose of making language visible.

Hank Richardson, Design Department Head, The Portfolio Center
Hank Richardson has long been a leader of The Portfolio Center.  During his tenure there, his students have garnered more than 5,000 local and national awards, and his graduates are employed in the most highly respected firms and agencies in the world, including And Partners, The Attic, Cartoon Network, CNN, DesGrippes Gobe, Goodby Silverstein, Hornell Anderson, Hallmark, Landor, Leo Burnett, Martha Stewart, MTV, Pentagram, The Richards Group, Sapient and VSA and others.

Ron Seichrist, President and Founder, Miami Ad School
Few people have shaped the world of advertising like Ron Seichrist.  As founder of The Portfolio Center and Miami Ad School, he has influenced many of the world's top creative talent and continues to find new ways to train students, placing them in internships at agencies worldwide.  He is considered a leading innovator in advertising and design education, and is the winner of many major national and international awards, including being named by Adweek as among the 10 people who shaped advertising in the last decade. 

# # #