Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: California Institute of Technology

Title of entry: Commencement Keepsake Poster

About this entry: In a year when many students were unable to visit their favorite campus hangouts—and the COVID-19 pandemic had entered its second year—this poster was designed to bring some of their best-loved spots to life in a keepsake format that could be pulled out of the magazine. The idea sprang from a sincere desire among the magazine staff to create a gift for the graduating class that had missed out on so many student experiences, including an in-person commencement. We wanted to create something cheerful and unique for them as well as the rest of our subscriber base of alumni, families, donors, and Caltech enthusiasts.

Through a combination of staff brainstorming and submissions from alumni, we included notable architectural landmarks along with caricatures of beloved campus community members and other inhabitants—from a longtime food truck vendor (Ernie's) with his signature smile, to the senior director of student activities and programs who is well known for his cooking classes, to Caltech's adorable turtles, and Cassie, a robot frequently seen on campus helping researchers develop algorithms for bipedal locomotion.