Sherwin-Williams Reveals 2016 STIR Student Design Challenge Winners
Sherwin-Williams’s STIR Student Design Challenge, honoring achievements in residential and commercial design, has announced its 2016 winners. Begun in 2010, STIR awards cash prizes of up to $2,500, and national publicity, to original designs submitted by students from design schools around the United States and Canada.
“A number of impressive submissions from talented up-and-coming designers,” were received, says Sue Wadden, director of color marketing at Sherwin-Williams and a judge of the contest. “This year’s winners stood out by incorporating technology, innovation, marketing and branding into their designs.”
Students submitted designs for residential design (an individual room or area, or an entire home) or commercial design (a hospitality, museum, office, or retail space) that integrates at least three Sherwin-Williams paint colors. In the residential category, Maryville University student Tyson Baker won first prize and $2,500 for a loft space that integrated five colors; Anna Nicholson of Radford University won $1,000 for her second-prize design, and a University of Bridgeport team including Allison Antosh, Daniela Varela, and Sarah Lafitte came in third, for a prize of $500. Nicholson also won the inaugural Facebook Fan Favorite award, with more than 350 votes.
The same cash prizes were awarded in the commercial design category, which Kwantlen Polytechnic University student Jenny Campbell won with a six-color law space; Michelle Cruz and Kate Heiser of Iowa State University took second place, and Anderson University’s Michaela Murphy took third. A redesign for a historic Carnegie Library by ISU’s Natalie McCullough and Allison Sims won the commercial category Facebook Fan Favorite award, with more than 500 votes.
Joining Wadden on the judging panel were designer Elizabeth Holmes and Melanie Sofia Castillo, a technical designer at Gensler and Associates.
