From the Nominator

The Fashion Institute of Technology is a unique mix of design, business, and technology. Though fashion is in our name and history—we were created in 1944 to support the industry—this State University of New York college has grown to incorporate interior design, toy design, fashion business management, and a graduate school that includes an important program for training cosmetics and fragrance executives. Referring explicitly to the fashion industry is thus no longer fully apt, and our tag line is, fittingly, the slightly amorphous "nurturing unconventional minds." With our magazine, Hue, our goal has always been to cultivate a sense of community among an extremely broad selection of majors—all generally supporting "New York creative industries"—and an immense diversity of human experience. Our challenge has been to achieve a unity of vision that represents everyone. Chairs, faculty, and alumni from our business majors, for example, frequently complain that our publications are too art-focused and neglect the business side of the house. There is one way in which all our majors intersect: They all require brainstorming, which requires note-taking. Once we hit upon the idea of a full issue devoted to notebooks, we knew it would work. After we published, a steady flow of emails praised the issue; alumni sought us out at in-person events; and one dean brandished the magazine at a meeting with vice presidents and said, "We should be doing more things like this!" Finally, in December, Erin Peterson of Capstone Communications named this issue of Hue one of her “50 Favorite Things in 2024."

From the Judges

This magazine knows its audience and tailors this special publication expertly. The concept of displaying artists’ notebooks and exploring their minds—how they think, create, reflect, and express themselves is captivating and so beautifully captured—paging through the issue feels like peeking into someone’s journal and is a testament to the creative process. It's the kind of piece you want to revisit—not just for the content but for the feeling it gives you.