College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

By Elisabeth Watson ’26 and Devin Chivers ’27

A University of Dayton art and design student is advancing to the national level of the American Advertising Awards after taking top honors in the local and regional competitions.

Sebastián De Léon, a senior graphic design major from Barranquilla, Colombia, received an American Advertising Federation-Dayton Hermes Gold Award in March for his branding project for a hypothetical Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, created in lecturer Kevin Sorg’s graphic design class.

The local awards are the first of three phases in the American Advertising Awards, also known as the “ADDYs,” sponsored by the American Advertising Federation.

De Léon was one of five UD students and class of 2024 alumni to win gold, silver and bronze honors at the AAF-Dayton Hermes Awards. The gold and silver winners moved on to the district phase in April, where they competed against students from Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. De Léon won a gold ADDY and Best of Show in the student portion of the district competition for his Olympics branding project.

National winners will be announced at the 2025 ADDY Awards Gala during AAF’s national conference, June 5-8 in Pittsburgh.

“I am just happy to know that all the effort I put into a class project is getting some recognition,” he said. “It feels good to know that other people value what kept me working at night for so long. I am very grateful to UD and my peers for pushing me not to settle.”

This year’s AAF-Dayton Hermes Award winners also included:

• Gold award: Sebastián De León and Maeve Fleming for Orpheus Spring 2024
• Silver award: Sebastián De León and Brooke Keller for Bing Davis Exhibition Collateral 
• Silver award: Chloe Reilly for Oooh Noodle Food Truck Branding
• Bronze award: Design Practicum Spring 2024 for Women's History Month
• Bronze award: Kennedy Smith ’24 for Wing Wizards Food Truck Branding

Kathy Kargl, a senior lecturer in graphic design, said it was another “super successful” year at the 2025 AAF-Dayton Hermes Awards. “The fact that I got to watch my students be recognized for awards that night for their outstanding work makes me very proud,” she said.

In the professional portion of the competition, Kargl won an AAF-Dayton Hermes Silver Award for her Brigid's Path 2023 Annual Report and bronze awards for her Hanley Sustainability Institute Impact Report and Marianist Hall Learning Space wall graphics.

The American Advertising Awards are considered the largest and most representative competition of its kind, with more than 25,000 entries received as part of the three-tier competition. In 2024, 65 Gold ADDYs were awarded, including the student portion of the competition. Awards are chosen by judges representing big, small and independent agencies and clients who evaluate each entry based on creative merit and overall quality.

De Léon’s solo winning project, his Stockholm Olympics branding, aimed to create unity amidst differences in society. He took inspiration from the 2012 Olympics’ idea of a “point of action,” which simulated an athlete’s focus while working.

“I thought that organic lines that met together at different convergent points would be good at conveying this,” he said. “I wanted the lines that interacted with these points to mimic athletes' gestures and intended movement. There is a lot of research that goes into designing, which is actually really fun to do.”

De Léon said every decision he made, from project development to presentation, was influenced by training from his instructors. He also said while he was glad more people were exposed to his work, he was thankful the effort of his teachers was also being appreciated.

Smith, who graduated in May 2024 with a degree in graphic design, won an AAF-Dayton Hermes Bronze Award for her food truck branding project. 

“The project was a full brand identity for a fictional food truck I created called Wing Wizards in my senior year trademark class,” said Smith, who is now a graphic apparel designer at Abercrombie & Fitch Co. in Columbus.

Smith said it is rewarding to be recognized at this level and the experience has reinforced her passion for design. Like De Léon, Smith said receiving this award left her with a mix of excitement, gratitude and validation for all of the late nights and hard work she put into her project.

“As a designer, you put so much of yourself into your work, and to have it acknowledged on this scale is truly an honor,” she said. “It gives me confidence that I’m on the right path.”