Credit: Alfred Maskeroni/Ad Age
Earlier this year, Kia Motors America partnered with Ad Age Studio 30 for the Driving Creativity contest, in which art and design students were invited to create a print advertisement for the Kia Stinger. The competition aimed to foster innovation for the advertising designers of tomorrow, and also allow Kia, which prides itself on being a youth-driven company, to embrace a fresher perspective.
After applicants were whittled down to six finalists, the decision was turned over to the Ad Age readership, which voted online for their favorite ad. On Dec. 4, Courtney Bott, a 22-year-old advertising design student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, was proclaimed the winner. The FIT senior will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2019 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, $10,000 toward her tuition and $5,000 to her school/program.
Studio 30 caught up with Bott, a native of Bayville, New Jersey, shortly after she learned of her big win, and she was eager to discuss the role art has played in her life, her postcollege aspirations and the details of her grand prize.
Bott knew at a young age that design was a field that called to her. "Even in elementary school, I just wanted to be in the art room," she says. "So I would ask to be the art helper." By the time she reached high school, Bott took "every art class possible. … I just didn't know how to make it lucrative." Eventually, after exploring graphic design and computer-aided design classes, Bott began to formulate her career goals. She first pursued a communication design associate's degree at FIT, which "gives you a pretty broad look into the whole design field." And when the time came to choose her concentration, Bott felt "advertising was really where my heart was."