Figure 1 CSU Pueblo junior Jayce Garcia and his award winning design.
Jayce Garcia didn’t expect to win.
The CSU Pueblo junior submitted his sticker design as a class assignment, one among many from his digital media illustration course. But when instructor Kimberly Pluskota announced the competition results, Garcia’s foam finger concept featuring Wolfie’s signature rock symbol had been selected as the winner.
“I thought mine was good, but I thought there were some really good ones in there,” Garcia said. “I was surprised, but obviously really excited.”
The winning design merged two familiar elements of school spirit. Garcia took the traditional foam hand seen at sporting events and reimagined it with the rock symbol that CSU Pueblo’s mascot Wolfie, frequently throws. The concept came together during a session in the university’s Mac Lab, where Garcia spent about three hours working in Adobe Illustrator.
“I was looking at pictures of Wolfie, the mascot, and I saw that he always has the rock symbol,” Garcia explained. “I’m like, well, that’d be cool if I did that, but as the foam hand design.”
For Garcia, graphic design is a relatively new passion. He discovered it in a multimedia class at Pueblo Community College before transferring to CSU Pueblo. Born in Pueblo but raised across the country and abroad due to his father’s Air Force career, Garcia lived in Germany, California and Virginia before returning for high school at East.
Those childhood experiences shaped his creative perspective in unexpected ways.
“Moving around a lot as a child helped shape my creativity by being exposed to many different cultures,” Garcia said. “I was able to experience a lot of different lifestyles and pulled art [inspiration] from those experiences.”
But it was Pluskota who helped refine those influences into technical skill. Garcia credits his professor with pushing him to develop as a designer through both the digital media design class and the design practicum.
“She was always helping me hone my skills and pushing me to be a better designer,” Garcia said. “She was a great teacher, and I wouldn’t have been able to do this design without her help.”
The victory shifted something for Garcia. What had been assignments completed for grades became evidence of a viable career path.
“Before I won the competition, I had just been doing designs for classes and I wasn’t sure if I was able to make a career out of this,” he said. “But when I won, it made me think that I can really do this.”
This semester, Garcia is bringing those skills to The Today Magazine, SOCO’s student media publication. He finds inspiration in the campus community and even in unexpected places like the university fountain, which he’d like to incorporate into future designs.
His advice to other students considering creative competitions is straightforward.
“Just go for it,” Garcia said. “It may be a little scary to share your work out there, but you never know what could happen. I did not expect to win this competition, but I submitted my piece anyway and I ended up winning.”
Garcia believes his design succeeded because of its simplicity and immediate visual appeal. “It just seemed like something that I would want as a sticker,” he said. “It just looks good, and anyone could enjoy it.”
The winning design will now be featured as part of the sticker drop and announced on the university’s Instagram account using the handle @CSUPuebloOnInstagram.
