St. Cloud State University graphic design students were honored last month at the 2026 American Advertising Awards hosted by AAF Central Minnesota.
Coen Johnson was awarded a Gold Student Award for an integrated brand identity campaign “Six Stops Down” and a Silver Student Award for “BEANBOX Packaging”.
Additionally, Johnson was a Best in Show winner in the professional category for his design role on the book “The Pilgrimage”, which he completed while an intern at the local agency Switchboard. Alumnus Ryan Shoepf led art direction on the project and is the company’s co-founder.
Lam Nguyen won a Gold Student Award for her cover design “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, while Samual Eisenschenk earned a Silver Student Award for his magazine design “dondolio”. Johnson and Eisenschenk were also honored at the 2025 Awards.
“It was fantastic to once again see our students recognized at our local ADDY Awards,” said Celi Merchant Monroe, an assistant professor of graphic design. “The show is always a great opportunity to for students to share their hard work, and I was grateful to see Coen, Samual and Lam recognized for the exceptional designs they created.”
Other SCSU alumni who worked on projects that were recognized include Mo Philippi, Michael Nelsen and Tyler Schmitz of Moxie Creative, Dominic Maas of the College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University and Alison Fischer, Ethan Leite and Carrie Karki of Whitebox Marketing.
