Feb 17, 2016

For the second year in a row, College of the Mainland student Chandler Milillo’s dramatic design has won the Galveston Mardi Gras poster contest.

The poster was recently unveiled, featuring a girl in early 1900s feathered eveningwear.

“It’s the 105th Mardi Gras celebration. I researched what happened in Galveston in 1911, and the Hotel Galvez opened,” said Milillo. “The silhouette is the Hotel Galvez.”

Describing herself as “obsessed with flowers,” Milillo incorporated a signature flower last year in her masked Mardi Gras creature and this year in the girl’s upswept hair.

Milillo will graduate from COM in May and has already started working as a graphic designer for TCB Specialties and Creative CAASCO Signs.

“I’d never touched Illustrator before (COM),” said Milillo. “(Now) I use it all the time. I do a wide range of things.”

In addition, COM student Jesus Ramirez, of La Marque, won first place and $200 in the Krewe Babalu Poster Contest 2016 with a "Midnight in Paris” themed poster depicting the Pleasure Pier and Eiffel Tower.

“The cover for the movie (Midnight in Paris) was ‘Starry Night’ by Van Gogh so I took inspiration from that,” said Ramirez, a general studies major.

“I took graphic design as an elective to try it out. I can just be creative and express myself.”

Ramirez will graduate next semester and is considering a graphic design associate degree.

Robin Collins, a COM graphic design instructor, won the Z Krewe poster content with a steampunk poster.

“A few years ago I dressed up like that for Halloween,” said Collins, who owns a design company Stone Studio Graphics and previously taught at the Art Institute. “I’ve been designing 35 years and love what I do. It never feel like I'm going to work.”

Collins is on the COM graphic design advisory board, a group of professionals who suggest what should be included in curriculum. She and other professors take students on field trips to graphic design agencies.

“I think that gets students excited. They see the application of graphic design and they work harder,” said Collins.

For more information on the COM graphic arts program, visit www.com.edu/graphicdesign.