Graphic design students come through with poster concepts for Riverkeeper Sweep

SUNY New Paltz students donated their graphic design skills to helping promote an event at which thousands of New York residents from Brooklyn to Troy volunteer to clean up and plant trees along the Hudson River shoreline.

The Riverkeeper Sweep is a day of service that will take place at more than 90 project sites up and down the Hudson River.

To help promote the event, Riverkeeper partnered with the fall 2016 Type & Image course, led by Adjunct Faculty Diane Attebury, asking the 17 graphic design students enrolled in the course to submit poster design proposals that capture the spirit of the river and the community service event.

The winning design by
Jenna Corti ’19

The designs were publicized on Riverkeeper’s social media pages, where the organization’s followers voted on a winner. In a close competition, a design by Jenna Corti ’19 (Visual Arts Education) emerged as the favorite, with Dulcia Halliday ’17 (Graphic Design) coming in a close second.

Corti’s poster will help the sixth annual Riverkeeper Sweep try to build on impressive impact measured last year, when volunteers removed more than 48 tons of debris, and planted or helped maintain nearly 1,000 trees and native grasses.

To learn more about how New Paltz students are helping beautify the Hudson Valley, visit the School of Fine & Performing Arts online.


Riverkeeper’s name was in the campus news earlier this semester, when their Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who serves as chief prosecuting attorney for the organization, addressed community members as SUNY New Paltz Distinguished Speaker.