Graphic Design Student Wins 2nd Place in National Quark Poster Competition

Fort Lauderdale, FL, January 04, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Luis Valderrama, of Miami, FL, scheduled to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, has won second place in the national Quark Inc. and The Art Institutes Student Graphic Design Competition 2008 for his Florida Youth Orchestra poster created with QuarkXPress®.

Valderrama, originally from Cartagena, Colombia, says, “My image consisted of a silhouette illustration of an orchestra conductor with a colorful balloon of orchestra instruments and shapes. This was done to represent a different and more playful side of the orchestra experience, taking advantage of the fact that this is a young people’s orchestra. The illustration was inspired by 60's illustrator Peter Max.”

This is the third consecutive year that The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale has had students place in the top three. Previous first place Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale winners have included now alumni Fabian Sanchez, of Hollywood, FL, and Lina Herrera, of Coconut Creek. View the winning work at http://www.ilovedesign.com/us/gallery/competitions/aicontest/.

“Quark is committed to working with The Art Institutes to promote the success of student designers,” said Chris Edwards, business development specialist in education for Quark. “We had more quality entries from students from all The Art Institutes in North America this year than ever before and that’s a testament to students and instructors acknowledging the value of learning and using QuarkXPress.”

The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, established in 1968, and now celebrating 40 Years of Creative Careers, awards Bachelor of Science and Associate of Science degrees, as well as diplomas. Programs currently offered are: Advertising, Art of Cooking, Baking & Pastry, Broadcasting, Culinary Arts, Culinary Management, Desktop & Graphic Design, Filmmaking & Video Production, Fashion Design, Fashion Merchandising, Game Art & Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Media Arts & Animation, Photography, Residential Design, Visual Effects & Motion Graphics, Video Production, and Web Design & Interactive Media. The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale is approved for the training of veterans and eligible veterans’ dependents and is authorized under federal law to enroll non-immigrant alien students. For more information, log on to www.artinstitutes.edu/fortlauderdale.

###