Winning with the holiday blues

Annemarie's "Snowman Friends" Design Is A Winner In Premier Press Contest

The holidays were a little more special this year for Annemarie Mullet ’24.

The Linfield University student not only had the pleasure of giving gifts to her family. She also saw the joy of them opening the gifts, each wrapped in the holiday wrapping paper that she had designed.

Annemarie, a digital arts major from Kirkland, Washington, won a design contest from Premier Press. The Portland-based creative production firm gives holiday-themed wrapping paper to its clients each year. It runs a contest for college students to submit original designs. In total, Premier Press received more than 30 submissions from throughout the region. Annemarie’s design was selected among the top four designs and printed for distribution.

Annemarie Reflects on Creative Recognition in Premier Press Design Victory

“I feel very appreciative when other creative people see the effort and thought I put into my work and are willing to reward it,” she said. “I was also very excited when I received the printed wrapping paper in the mail from Premier Press. All my family’s gifts were wrapped in it, and everyone was excited to open gifts with wrapping paper made by me!” 

The pattern, titled “Snowman Friends,” features snowflakes on one side and sketched snowmen on the other.

“When brainstorming the design, I wanted something holiday, but didn’t want to do anything I felt was overused in wrapping paper,” she said. “I chose the snowmen because I knew they would be fun to add character to. I wanted one side to be more fun and one more serious, so I settled on hyper-realistic snowflakes based on microscopic photos of snowflakes on the other side.”

Annemarie learned printmaking skills this fall while completing an independent study with Thea Gahr, the curator for the Linfield Art Gallery.

Artistic Fusion: Annemarie Merges Printmaking with Digital Art for Festive Wrap

"I wanted to use the skills I learned in designing the wrapping paper,” she said. “I had mostly entered the contest because I wanted a chance to try mixing printmaking with Photoshop as I love mixing art mediums, but I also felt very encouraged by my professors and classmates to have a go at it.”

The process while fun, was also complex, according to Annemarie.

“I first sketched and carved the designs into linoleum blocks. I inked the blocks with black ink, then ran them through the press,” she said. “Then, I scanned the prints into Photoshop, where I digitally altered the designs to have color. I chose blues for colors because I think blues are great colors for the holidays."

In addition to majoring in digital arts, Annemarie is minoring in creative writing, visual studies and studio art. She is the managing editor and digital art coordinator for The Linfield Review, a student-run media organization. Annemarie also works in the Digital Art Lab and at the Writing Center. She came to Linfield from Kirkland, Washington.

The three other winners were Andre Saez of the University of Arkansas, Audrey Walch of California Polytechnic State University and Harper Pearce-Mitchell of the University of Oregon.

Last year, two Linfield students – Emma Inge ’23 and Meghan Mullaly ’23 – were among the four winners in Premier Press’s 2022 holiday wrapping paper contest.

See all of the holiday-themed wrapping paper designs at  https://www.premierpress.com/project/premiers-2023-holiday-wrapping-paper/.