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FLORENCE-The Music Preservation Society, Inc. (MPS) is proud to announce the winners of the 2013 W.C. Handy Music Festival Design Competition; the design was submitted by University of North Alabama students, Mackenzie Kimbrough of Tuscumbia, Alabama and Maurice Mull of Athens, Alabama.
Kimbrough and Mull are in the UNA Honors Program and students of Ron Davis, Assistant Professor of Computing Information Systems. The design was created by Kimbrough and Mull for a class assignment. Davis said, “I am really pleased with Mackenzie and Maurice’s design and I am also very proud of the effort that all of the students in this class made.”
The idea for the design came from Mackenzie Kimbrough’s musical background; she’s a musician and her Dad is a drummer – he has been her 
inspiration. Mackenzie noticed thatprevious designs didn’t include a drum set, she pitched the idea to Maurice and he liked it!Mull said, “It took us a long time to get the design going, after we got started it took us four to five weeks, working several hours a day.”
inspiration. Mackenzie noticed thatprevious designs didn’t include a drum set, she pitched the idea to Maurice and he liked it!Mull said, “It took us a long time to get the design going, after we got started it took us four to five weeks, working several hours a day.”The winning design will be used to publicize the Handy Festival, replicated on t-shirts, posters, brochures, memorabilia, and utilized in several advertising formats. The winners will also receive $500 in prize money. Entries were judged on merit, suitability as a visual image, originality, and how well the design reflects the spirit of the Festival. The final decision was made by the Music Preservation Society, Board of Directors.
“The W.C. Handy Music Festival’s design competition provides an excellent opportunity for artists and students of any grade level to work with an actual project that addresses a need of a local organization,” said Nancy Gonce, Executive Director of the MPS.
All of the artwork submitted for the 2013 Design Competition can be seen in an exhibition during this year’s festival. The 32nd annual W.C. Handy Music Festival is scheduled for July 19-28, 2013.
