Congratulations Spencer!

And good luck to the other poster designers. I'm excited to see which ones get the nod from our intrepid Judges.

Congrats Spencer. Nice work. I like what you did with overlays a lot and the colors palette was pretty nice. What is the font that was used?

Three cheers for the triumph of good old-fashioned fun over depth of meaning & for the student upstart who gave it to us!

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Armin, was this poster the candidate of the evil get out the vote campaign?

Nope. Fair and square.

>Three cheers for the triumph of good old-fashioned fun over depth of meaning & for the student upstart who gave it to us!

Lets not assume this was student work. It strides a nice line between loose, simple and fun but still executed with a knowing eye and suberb color.

The font is Brothers by Emigre I believe.

For me it wasn't deep enough in concept but it is actually nice to look at and I actually rereading the quote. Congrats Spencer.

wasn't assuming.

NICE!!! well done!!

Spencer's poster is actually one of the posters I reacted to positively when I was first preparing the submissions. It has a liveliness that other posters didn't have. It also has a certain innocence to it, in the way it is drawn and depicted with the flames and the screaming people. I'm a sucker for Emigre's Brother typeface so I was drawn to it quickly. The quote — even though it is completely devoid of context — meshes very well with the Speak Up "philosophy" — some conversations do, at times, feel like you are just going to hell really, really quick. The overlay effects are good, I thought there were other posters that used the effect better, but this one achieves a more poppy (as in pop culture) 3D effect that is quite nice and pleasing to the eye. I enjoy the simplicity and clunkiness of the flames too.

In other words, I'm happy to have this poster be part of the set.

congrats!

i was diggin on this one. it's not real deep (which i have been arguing for in other posts), but it makes you laugh, and laughing ranks pretty high in my book.

well done!

Thanks for the font name. Damned Emigre and there $95. Anybody know anything about that school/ program IDEA that spencer went to. There a lot peple with some skills on their site. Good Illustrators and such.

Nice research Mr Gill. My apologies for assuming the assumption.

Although I would assume since the esteemed winner graduated in 2004, he was not part of the students who did the posters as a class project.

Booya!

Chalk one up for the Canadians! Congrats Spencer.

So here's the really important question — who's in that bobsled?

Congratulations Spencer! I'm looking forward to your acceptance speech.

Maybe it's the Canadian's view from the outside of the current state of the current United States administration in the White House.

Congratulations Spencer!!

I'm especially pleased because he used MY QUOTE! Woohoo! I had been anxiously awaiting seeing what he was going to do with it ever since I received an email from him.

Congratulations Spencer!!! Really nice work and since it made me laugh, it was even better. (not much made me laugh the week the posters went up). Anyhow, really nice job and a good selection as a winner.

now here's the kicker...i know for a fact that our dear mr. spencer's wasn't the only student poster in the final five...but i assumed his was student work.

not my favorite poster, but a very fun reiteration of the quote. good job spencer, congratulations.

more fun facts after all the winners are decided...

congrats Spencer!

Slightly off-topic.

Thanks Mr. Gill for the Google research.

Spencer's personal site is damn nice. Healthy variety of work, all of it quite good. I love the character animation on the homepage. Cute.

I particularly like the "Chapters" Wall Mural and self-portrait pieces.

Consider this one bookmarked.

Yes, it is I, the legendary Spencer Fruhling. Thank you.

You like me, you really like me... it was an honour just to be nominated... etc. etc.

Seriously though, thanks to everybody at Speak Up, and everyone who voted for my poster. Props to my fellow IDEA program grads. And my mom.

aw jeez, you had to spell honor with a U...

congradulations dude, rockin the spot for the design larvae, yeahs

Although I would assume since the esteemed winner graduated in 2004, he was not part of the students who did the posters as a class project

That infamous group of students.

There were only 25 or so of us. I think I speak for many of us that our welcome wasn't as warm in this contest as we had hoped, referring to the past comments. But thanks to those of you that went to bat for us. It makes me feel like the open door policy of Speak Up is really open to all levels of design experience.

I am pleased that a recent grad from any school won this round and that his design is exciting and vibrant. Now who are the students and who is the master?

Nina, just know: you'll have to stay on your toes your whole life to keep from becoming what they are yourself.

hhp

I was merely pointing out that Spencer might not have actually been a part of the class. All judgement aside. Just trying to get the facts straight because I am interested.

And lastly, enough boo hooing about the students not getting the warm and fuzzies. Nobody really made any disparaging comments about the students anyway. Other than the possibility of problems with the voting which Armin later verified to be somewhat true. I think the general consensus was that student involvement was welcome and exciting.

Thicken the skin a little. Sheesh.

I'm inclined to agree with agrayspace... take it from me (a fairly recent graduate), there aren't a lot of places that will hold your hand and lead you to the front of the respect line, without you earning it. Most of the time you gotta muscle for it. A lesson best learned early.

Interesting! There was more than one class of students entered in this contest...I don't know nina and my entire class entered this contest too. So all that was said about the students voting for each other seems to be just an assumption, seeing as it was a recent grad, and not an actual student whose class entered the contest, won.

Nina, just know: you'll have to stay on your toes your whole life to keep from becoming what they are yourself.

I plan to do my best. Thank you.

Congrats, Spencer! You had my vote all the way. Your poster reminded me of the work of Dirk Fowler, so I had to give you props on that.

Dirk Fowler's posters at gigposters.com

I'd have to say that Nina's comment wasn't as much a cry for pity for students as it was an observation on the reaction we all had when, first, seeing the posters and then the finalists. I do have to agree that we did not exactly roll out the red carpet for the students. I think there was a decent balance between welcoming and shunning and probably the anonimity of the contest helped both sentiments. I am not sure what is the point I may be trying to make.

I think the student work in the contest was good and bad. Good in that it offered fresh(er) perspectives from "untarnished" and "uncorrupted" (hopefully) designers. Bad in that some of the posters weren't done with the rigour earned after designing for a few years.

It's all about the learning experience. For all of us.

I notice that all five finalists were in the last quarter of the entries. Did the judges assume that late entrants must have put more work into their entries? Or is it just human nature to look over a vast amount of information and forget everything but the most recently reviewed?

(I think the latter :P)

i voted for one of the first ten entries the first time around...but i think that everyone narrowed down a list of at least five, and the majority just happened to land on those at the end of the list by conicidence...

Hello designers.

As Spencer Fruhling's friend and wife, I would like to say: Yay Spencer! You deserved it! I love you.

He worked really hard on his poster, all night, and he is a brilliant and wonderful man. He is also sexy.

Thanks to all of you who voted for him!

Design on, designers! You all are hard workers, and it will pay off some day!

Congrats to Spencer (and his wife!)

But when do we see the real winners?

Well, Spencer's poster is as "real" as the others…

But to answer the question regardless of their "realness": probably by the end of this month, which scarily is this weekend. One of the judges has already submitted his/her decision.