WINTER PARK, FL – Yesterday, judges from Dean Guitars named the team of Full Sail University students, collectively known as “Team Defyent,” as the winner of the Dean Guitars and Full Sail University “Design a Dean Guitar” student competition. The winning design will be manufactured by Dean Guitars and made available at the retail level in 2013.
On June 20, 14 teams comprising Full Sail University students embarked on a three-phase, 13-week competition to design a Dean guitar. The competition kicked off at Full Sail University with each student team creating a video of intent, a product pitch and a product development proposal to support their guitar design.
After a very competitive final elimination round, the team of judges from Dean Guitars announced "Team Defyent" as the winner of the competition. “Team Defyent” members include Full Sail students Jim Engel (Entertainment Business Masters), Kevin Gray (Entertainment Business Masters), Jody Gross (Entertainment Business Masters), Thomas “Guy Petrie (Recording Arts Bachelors), and Sterling Wentz (Recording Arts Bachelors).
The winning team was selected based upon the professionalism of their product pitch, the creativeness of their marketing collateral and originality of their guitar concept. They provided a balance of merging their concept, which complimented the Dean brand and style, with bringing something new to the table in terms of product offering. Images of the winning guitar design will be made available in the weeks and months ahead, once the Dean USA wood shop has built and unveiled the official prototype.
"The creativity and enthusiasm from all of the Full Sail students on all 14 teams was really inspiring and we've had a great time with this curriculum project. Dean Guitars believes in empowering young creative minds that want to work in the music industry.
This is real-world stuff and these students are getting to participate in real time with us,” said Curse Mackey, Director of Marketing at Dean Guitars. “Now that we have a winner, we have a lot of work to do in developing the final prototype and getting this to the retail level. The Full Sail students will continue to participate at every stage of the production process. This a great collaboration between a university, it's students and an instrument manufacturer. Cool stuff!" Dean Guitars will donate proceeds from the retail sale of the winning guitar back to Full Sail University in the form of a student scholarship, as this curriculum-based project becomes an annual event.
“Our students demonstrated tremendous passion throughout this process and we thank Dean Guitars for giving them the chance to gain real-world experience by participating in this opportunity,” said Heather Torres, Department Chair of Full Sail University’s Entertainment Business Bachelor of Science Degree Program. “Overall, the project was challenging, educational, and fun. We look forward to a continued relationship with Dean Guitars in the future!”