ETSU student, Kaitlyn Honeycutt, was recognized by the American Advertising Federation for winning the Silver Medal Award for her graphic design piece. Her winning project was a class assignment on a pizza restaurant design selected by her graphic design professor, Johnathon Strube, after she presented skill proficiency and creative potential in the classroom.

Born in Bristol, Tennessee, Honeycutt is a senior about to obtain a Bachelor of Fine Arts. For her project, she designed a restaurant in a new direction with a sophisticated feel and eye-catching pizza names while keeping the tradition of tasty combinations. Some of these were the “Q-Ball,” a chicken barbecue pizza, the “S’more Please,” a dessert S’more pizza, and the “Honey Fire Chicken,” a sweet and hot chicken pizza.

Photo of Kaitlyn Honeycutt at the American Advertising Awards. (Contributed/@etsuartanddesign Instagram)

“I made sure to look up a bunch of recipes and different things that just made the whole thing not only feel modern, look modern, but also if it were a real restaurant, it would really have that appeal,” Honeycutt said.

Looking at home for inspiration, a restaurant named Bloom located in Bristol was an influence on her design process due to its contemporary and chic style.

“In picking the pizza [restaurant], I thought, ‘how can I create an eclectic experience,’” Honeycutt said. “Something that isn’t like Pizza Hut or your Papa Johns.”

The day she found out about the competition was the same day it was due. On top of web design, the submission also called for creating an app that Honeycutt already had developed in class. With only a few hours left to revise, improve and submit, assistance from professors, peers and ETSU resources was crucial to her success.

“I feel like as graphic designers we have a really hard time trusting in ourselves and really believing ourselves that we are creating something that’s worth something,” Honeycutt said. “But after this award, I feel a lot more confident than I did before.”

Honeycutt is currently working under contract at The Robinette Company, a mass printing job she landed through a high school program, and looks forward to the opportunities this award will open for her. Looking into the future, Honeycutt has submitted her piece to move forward into the district competition and hopes to turn the silver award into gold.