2008-6d-4

This letter serves to nominate Pete Hurdle for CNBAM’s Designer of the Year.

Pete is not your typical designer. He’s not your typical anything.

Sure he has a firm grasp of design principles, is infinitely creative and makes PhotoShop scream for RAM. He’s also hardworking, never late for deadline and spends many of his afternoons giving peers and younger, just-starting designers one-on-one lessons. What makes Pete atypical is that he makes sure what needs to get done, gets done, no matter what.

He started at UNC Charlotte’s Student Media program as a sophomore, taking the position of production assistant in Media Marketing’s ad production department. Up until then, Pete had only worked in MSPaint and Word; he was not familiar with the Macintosh platform and had never used anything in the Adobe Creative Suite.

Within two weeks he was making camera-ready ads. Good ones. By the following semester, he was showing me tips and tricks with PhotoShop — and I’ve been using that program to make a living since edition 1.0.

The next year, Pete was promoted to Creative Director. When the Media Marketing department was suddenly short a director, Pete stepped up to the plate and filled that position. He did not enjoy the sales and circulation managing aspect of the job but that did not hold him back from doing it well. Pete wasn’t in it for his own gratification. He was in it because the job needed doing.

He has since served as design editor of UNC Charlotte’s literary-arts magazine, Sanskrit, and then stepped back into the role of Creative Director. The University Times has won numerous ad design awards the past four years; Pete Hurdle created a disproportionate number of those prizewinners. He has even earned Student Media’s highest honor of Employee of the Year (academic year 2005-2006).

Student Media uses a concept theme to communicate the year’s goals or mission. Pete has thought up and developed Student Media’s themes for three of the past four years. In addition, Pete has written, filmed and edited videos that are shown at Student Media’s end-of-year awards banquet for the past four years. These videos serve as entertainment at the banquet and they are also are used for recruiting. They are very well done; one of them is jaw-droppingly good (and funny).

Typically, there are few students who devote four years and thousands of hours to programs that require as much commitment as Student Media. It’s even less likely to have a student volunteer for difficult challenges and shoulder jobs they don’t particularly like. Downright rare is a student who will do all that with excellence, who will push their ability until the end product is outstanding. Pete is even more unusual because he does all this with great humility.

Should one point out to Pete what an exceptional designer, artist, manager and person he is, his typical response will be nothing more than a chuckle.

Winning recognition as designer of the year is something Pete Hurdle has spent his college years earning. I seriously doubt you’ll find anyone more deserving, more talented or more well rounded. But with or without this honor, Pete will continue to stretch himself and strive for nothing short of excellence.

Because that’s just typical of Pete.

Respectfully submitted,

LouAnn Lamb

Graphics Production Coordinator, Student Media PublicationsMarketing and Graphics Coordinator, Student AffairsUNC Charlotte

December 5, 2007

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January 7, 2008 CNBAM Award Selection Committee: It is with great enthusiasm that I nominate Pete Hurdle for the CNBAM Designer of the Year Award. Mr. Hurdle joined our team in January of 2003 as a production assistant. Unusually shy and timid at first, he enjoyed layout and design and learning as much as he could about Photoshop and InDesign. He mainly stayed in the production area, creating ads and learning the ropes. Mr. Hurdle continued to advance in the department, eventually holding the positions of assistant production manager, marketing coordinator, and creative director. This once-shy and timid guy from production came out of his shell and took the managerial position of creative director in Spring of 2005. He made efficiency and timeliness his number one priority and streamlined the production process. He continued in that role taking our department to new heights in creativity and effectiveness. In the fall of 2006, our marketing director had to resign due to student loan issues. The Student Media Board selected Mr. Hurdle to take over the helm as the director of marketing. He immediately became responsible for a growing staff of approximately 15 students with various duties from sales to ad production to circulation to office management. Even before he was selected as director, he had already begun making a list of things to do and questions to ask. As a new director he recruited an eager and hard-working sales staff and production staff. He had no summer to plan the transition from creative director to marketing director, but did a wonderful job. Needless to say, the staff got off to a great start under the leadership of a new, dedicated director. Since then, he has made the move back to the area of production and excelled. His design work is cutting-edge and he is always keeping abreast of new and innovative trends in design. He is always willing to share new tips and tricks with other members of the production team. He has done an unbelievable job with keeping the production staff motivated and minimizing operational impact. In addition, he has worked on the staff of Sanskrit, the annual literary-arts magazine, and on nineronline.com. Everyone knows him, and everyone likes him. He’s one of the only students we’ve ever known to work in virtually every area of Student Media. Mr. Hurdle’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. He has been honored by his peers for his accomplishments, receiving several student staff awards at Student Media Awards of

Excellence Programs throughout the years. He was recognized as the Student Media Employee of the Year for 2005; the Student Media Employee of the Month in September 2004; the Most Valuable Staffer in 2004; and the Rising Star in 2003. In addition, he was awarded with the Shameka Smith Hamilton “Spirit of Student Media Award” as well as the Ogilvy Award for Excellence in Advertising Design in 2004. He has attended numerous business meetings and conventions for such organizations as CNBAM and SUN, as well as taken home several awards for design. All in all, Mr. Hurdle is a role-model to budding designers here in Student Media. I hope you will consider Mr. Hurdle for this most prestigious award. With common interest, Kelly Merges Assistant Director of Student Media Marketing Adviser

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