2025 Vintage Poster Contest
Project Background and Description
The Federal Art Act of 1937, among other things, helped promote the visitation of residents and international tourists to a newly created National Parks system. In recent years, the number of visitors and parks visited has increased substantially causing public lands officials to consider how best to manage these lands with the increased visitation. Today, the message to visitors and outdoor recreationists would be different if we were to create new promotional posters for visiting our national lands.
The State of the Rockies Conservation in the West Poll surveys people in the 8-state Rocky Mountain Region about their attitudes toward public land conservation and other current environmental, social, and political issues we face living in the West. The poll consistently demonstrates a growing desire to protect our nationally designated public spaces.
THE CONTEST
ENTER TO WIN:
1ST PLACE $700 2ND PLACE $500 3RD PLACE $250
Student VINTAGE poster
1930s
National Parks poster
In addition to the digital image, your submission must include an explanation of why or how your contemporary conservation motto is relevant to current conservation attitudes of residents in the 8-state Rocky Mountain West (highlighted in the Conservation in the West 2024 poll) and how or why your motto is relevant to the national park, monument, forest, you chose. Please submit a 150-word maximum justification for choosing the place you chose — explain to us why, how, and/or what conservation efforts are critical for the future of the public space your poster represents. This Bryce Canyon National Park poster is an example of a poster created during the Federal Art Project; the old vintage poster is now recreated as what students may come up with using their own imaginations and by exploring the survey results on public and national lands. Of course, this mock-up is more of a spoof; but witty text and images are welcome.
Please submit your entry to chines@coloradocollege.edu by MIDNIGHT on JANUARY 18, 2024. Use CC OneDrive to share large files.
Winners announced January 25, 2025 at noon.
Contest Guidelines
Contest Criteria
- Efficacy of your conservation motto and justification as they relate to conservation concerns reported by recent Conservation in the West poll findings
- Composition of poster
- Creative use of the historical national park poster style
- Use of color
- Impact of message
COPYRIGHT rules:
Colorado College reserves the right to use all student contest entries for academic and promotional purposes.
Students may use their original artwork in any way they choose but may not include any Colorado College identifiers as part of their original work when selling or promoting their poster creations.
CC stringently adheres to these rules and guidelines of this contest.
File Specifications
- Files must be saved as a JPEG/JPG or PNG.
- Posters should be at least 11” x 17”, but can be larger. Choose a size that works for your composition.
- Resolution of files should be 600 dpi (we need high-res files so that we can print them for display).
Need Help?
Contact Meghan Rubenstein (mrubenstein@coloradocollege.edu) in the Visual Resource Center!
Meghan and the student staff in the VRC are happy to have people come and learn Adobe on the computers in the VRC.
MEET THE JUDGES
Jillian Sico (she/her) is a papermaker, bookbinder, and letterpress printmaker who makes artists’ books under the imprint Frogsong Press. She received an MFA in Book Arts from The University of Alabama in 2020, where she focused on letterpress printing, papermaking, and fine bookbinding. She also received an MA in Environmental Anthropology from The University of Georgia in 2013 and a BA from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD in 2005. Her process is informed and expanded through collaboration and research on culture and ecology. Her work has been exhibited nationally and is held in numerous special and private collections. Jillian currently manages The Press at Colorado College.
Kaitlin Steinfort, '22 (she/her) is a Colorado College alum and former poster printer at The Press at Colorado College. In the summer of 2019, she took a Book Arts and Letterpress course at The Press at Colorado College and worked alongside Aaron Cohick and other students in the press through her senior year. During her final year on campus, Kaitlin combined her passion for environmental protection and education and her love for creating art in the press to help design and create the posters used to advertise the first State of the Rockies poster contest in 2021/2022. Now as an alum, Kaitlin works in the habitat management field and continues to work on her own art in a variety of media, hoping to continue finding and creating ways to use art as a tool for environmental advocacy, protection, and education. Kaitlin now works as an environmental technician for Tasman Geosciences!
Sponsored by the State of the Rockies Project and supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. For more information, EMAIL Cyndy Hines chines@coloradocollege.edu
CC letterpress students designed promotional posters for the 2024, 2023, and 2022 contests.
The 2025 posters are by
CC Rolls Vintage Press: Students Help Launch Vintage West Poster Contest
Colorado College students run campus letterpress producing vintage-style posters to help promote the college's State of the Rockies Conservation in the West student vintage poster contest.
CC State of the Rockies Vintage Poster Contest: What Makes a Good Poster?
CC vintage press printmakers share their ideas on what a winning poster should include. Learn what to include in your vintage poster contest submission.
Story and video by Eric Ingram, '23.