Every year, the Department of Education distributes thousands of school directories to students and their families across New York City. The Department of Education and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum worked together to select student entries for the 2011-2012 cover directory design. The Cover Design Competition is a competition for New York City high school students. The competition encourages participants to reflect on their lives as public school students in New York City and express their ideas artistically in the form of a cover design. Of the 130 entries, 15 semi-finalists were selected to join a series of workshops at the Museum led by prominent graphic designers. Among those designers was Phil Jimenez. He is an American illustrator who has worked with DC Comics and Marvel and is well-known for his rendition of the Amazing Spider-Man #583 featuring Barack Obama. The workshops enabled students to showcase their artistic talents and be recognized for their creativity. At the completion of the workshops student designs were posted on the DOE website for public vote, the first-time in the history of the competition. Over 8,000 votes were received in a matter of 5 days. Of the 15 semi-finalists four winners were selected. Dennis Walcott, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education joined us to celebrate the students who participated in the competition and to present awards to the winners and finalists.
A special thank you to the designers and panelists who joined us for the celebration and to the Boas and Claster Families in honor of Nancy Marks for their gift in support of this program.