Winning this Holiday Season

Each year, Colby-Sawyer College sends original holiday cards to our alumni, friends, families and community members. This year is no exception, thanks to our two holiday card winners: Kailyn Lapham ’20, and runner-up, Erin Chute ’20, both graphic design majors. Kailyn’s digital design will be sent out by the college, and physical copies of Erin’s card will be distributed by the Advancement Department.

After the contest was proposed to them in their Interactive Design class, Erin and Kailyn started sketching right away. “We actually sit right next to each other,” said Erin. “We work together and bounce ideas off each other.”

They both planned to create a sense of festiveness with their cards. Kailyn hoped to emulate the warmth and coziness of the holiday season with a design featuring woolen mittens and a picturesque snow globe; Erin wanted to focus on a building that represents Colby-Sawyer, landing on a fresh perspective of the maple sugaring shack. For the letters on her card, Kailyn used yarn as a texture she scanned into the program to tie everything together. Erin’s design was mostly hand-drawn, with attention to details like the windows glowing with warmth and the thick swirl of syrup-making smoke.

“It’s exciting to do something real,” Kailyn said. “Being chosen out of all those submissions and making something people will send and receive is exciting,” Erin agreed.

That is one of the reason why Kailyn chose graphic design as a major—for the hands-on, real-life application, which she employed during her internship at Sullivan Creative in Concord, N.H. The endless options presented to her through graphic design keep Kailyn intrigued and innovative. She is not entirely certain what she wants to do with her degree, but is eager to see where it takes her.

Erin found inspiration in her aunt, who makes a living in the same field. Always a lover of art, Erin discovered her skills translate better through graphic design rather than traditional art forms. This is the second year in a row that Erin claimed the title of holiday card runner-up; she also created one of the winning labels for Colby-Sawyer’s maple syrup in the spring of 2018.

When people see these seasonal cards, Erin hopes they feel cozy and content, and Kailyn wants them to feel “a warm embrace, like giving your family a hug for the holidays; like a hug from Colby-Sawyer.”

by Ashley Vajentic ’21