Two UW-Stout graphic communications management students have won national and state awards for their printed label and design work.

Aaron Brice, of Eau Claire, and Ashley Raymond, of Chippewa Falls, will receive a 2011 Excellence in Flexography Award Sunday, May 1, at the Flexographic Technical Association annual forum in Indianapolis.

Previously, they received a similar award for the same project from the Printing Industries of Wisconsin.

Flexography is a printing process that uses a flexible relief plate to transfer an image to packaging materials such as corrugated cardboard, plastic bags and food wrappers.

Brice and Raymond, both seniors, designed and printed a Thank You label for Ambient Vision Inks, a Menomonie screen printing business that Brice co-owns. The project started as a Package Printing class assignment from instructor Bhaskar Gaddam. Brice and Raymond eventually entered their work in the student division of the FTA annual contest.

The project was completed at the graphic communications lab in the Communication Technologies Building.

"It's a great feeling to be recognized for the hard work we put into this project," said Raymond. "It's a pretty simple two-color design, but I think the message is what won the judges over."

The label includes a short, personal message to Ambient Vision Inks customers from the owners and encourages customers to offer feedback via the company's website.

"We didn't consider this just another class project," Brice said. "The added incentive of using the final product for business purposes helped push Ashley and me to create a label that met the FTA's elaborate and strict judging procedure."

UW-Stout students also won the award in 2005, according to Gaddam, who plans to attend the award ceremony with Brice and Raymond.

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