Design Students Win 2026 American Advertising Awards
Western Washington University’s Department of Design is excited to announce that Bachelor of Fine Arts ("BFA") students Nathan Christner, Royce Alton, and Kal DeLong all won American Advertising Awards. All students won in the category: Elements of Advertising–Film, Video & Sound–Animation or Special Effects.
Nathan Christner received a prestigious National Gold Addy in Austin, Texas on Friday, May 29, for his ‘The Ocean Cleanup’ promo video. He also took home four District awards at the ceremony in Seattle in late April, winning a Gold Addy for a promotional video for ‘The Ocean Cleanup’ and a Silver for a promotional video for ‘MCON Gaming Controller.’ Nathan was also awarded two Judge’s Choice trophies for his creative excellence.
Royce Alton and Kal DeLong both won Bronze awards at the District level for their promotional videos. Royce designed a multi-platform video campaign for ‘The North Face Base Camp’ and Kal created a sequence for a hypothetical ‘MoPop in Print’ exhibit centering around women artists in print.
For the District Awards, all of the students’ work was showcased at the live event and trophies and certificates were handed out at the live ceremony in Seattle. All three of the students plus two additional BFA students, Autumn Rifenbury and Athena Rondeau, were also invited to share their design portfolios during the networking portion of the awards gala in a session entitled the ‘Future of the Industry.’
All the projects were created in Professor Kacey Morrow’s Senior Seminar courses where these BFA Design students focused on creative problem-solving for advanced motion design projects. Students were tasked with concept and design development as well as motion design production for commercial branding campaigns. All the students utilized effective design techniques to produce compelling visual stories in their respective projects.
Award winners, top, left to right: Kal DeLong, Autumn Rifenbury, Royce Alton, Nathan Christner
Project photos, top to bottom
- “The Ocean Cleanup” by Nathan Christner
- “MCON” by Nathan Christner
- “MoPop in Print” by Kal DeLong
- “The North Face Base Camp” by Royce Alton
