Western student Nathan Christner wins prestigious national ADDY Award

WWU student Nathan Christner, a Design major from Bellingham, recently won one national and three district American Advertising Awards (also known as “ADDYs”) for his “Fish Are People Too.” His work building and designing an ad for MCON, a game controller for mobile devices, also won two district ADDYs. Quite the trophy haul.

WWU News recently chatted with Nathan about his awards, his creative process and what’s next for him, and the faculty at Western that have helped him reach for his goals.

WWU: Tell us about the ADDYs, and what entering an awards contest like this looks like for a student.

Nathan: “The ADDYs is an award program for anything advertising – from posters to movie tie-ins. They have a regional competition and if you get a silver or gold award in that, you compete in the national competition in the student or industry category.”

WWU: How much time goes into projects like these, and where do you get your ideas and inspiration to bring your concepts to reality?

Nathan: “A LOT of time goes into making these projects; from the concept to the final it can take 1-2 months of really hard work, and tons of hours. I’ve always been into making videos and dumb little animated things, and the Design program at Western was the closest I could get to that academically.  

I get a lot of my ideas from playing video games or watching Blender tutorial YouTube videos. I remember playing the game Half Life 2 at a friend’s house over 10 years ago and being absolutely enamored by the graphics and physics engine, and I knew then that whatever black magic that was, I wanted to do it.”

WWU: There were doubtless a huge number of worthy submissions from students across the nation; what do you think made yours stand out?

Nathan: “One thing that can make your stuff stand out is getting the audio right. In my experience, sound design is like 50% of a video and sometimes it can be better to have no sound at all if your sound design doesn’t sound natural for the visuals.  

For the MCON ad, at the very end there is the robotic voice that says, “PLAY BIG” “MCON” and that is actually me with a filter over the top of it. It took about 15 takes to get that right and as soon as I added that it was like the cherry on top. I can hear the sound design in my head as I’m watching things on screen, so it comes natural to me, and I’ve been slowly honing my ability to capture what I hear in my head and put it into the computer. Sometimes I’ll move a 3D object on the screen too fast and the sound I hear for it in my head is actually so loud it makes me flinch.”

WWU: Is there a faculty member or members you’d like to single out as being instrumental to your success with these projects?

Nathan: “I want to shout out Kacey Morrow, our motion professor in the Design program. I would have never submitted these projects if it wasn’t for her emailing me last second to turn it in! I also want to thank my boss Deran Browne from the Digital Media Center in Haggard Hall. I was able to work on these projects in the DMC, and Deran has always been super supportive and creates a space to encourage creativity. Also a shout out to my parents! They are always encouraging me to create more stuff and I’m very grateful for that.”

WWU: What are your goals after Western, and how can participating in, let alone winning, awards contests like these help push you to those goals?

Nathan: “After Western, I do have a job lined up in the advertising industry thanks to winning these awards, and so I think having some official form of recognition is super important and something we need more of. With so much low-effort AI slop out there, taking a moment to recognize the human element of making these projects and the thought and detail that goes into every nook and cranny of these pieces is imperative.  

In the design program feedback rounds, professors are always pushing us to go an extra layer deeper in the meaning of our work, knowing that student work can be just as good as high-budget productions. Recognizing those students for what they achieve empowers them to go on and create incredible things.

Aside from working in the advertising industry, I also want to make video games. Games are the ultimate storytelling device and create such a deep connection with the player; it’s unlike any other medium. This summer some friends and I released our first game called “Blemo” on Steam, and it was super fun to actually make something people could explore. I hope to do more of that.” 

To learn more about Western’s design program in the College of Fine and Performing Arts, visit the Department of Design website.