Westmont College Art Professor Wins 2025 Avo Fest Design Contest

Scott Anderson, MFA, professor of art at Westmont College for 27 years, is the winner of the 39th Annual California Avocado Festival’s Art Design Contest for its posters and t-shirts. The reveal was done on Thursday, September 11, at the Carpinteria Farmers Market where the Avo Fest set up a booth.

I met Avo Fest Director Olivia Sorgman at the reveal, and sheshared with me for our readers, “We had so many entries this year and if you want to get a glimpse of them, check out our Instagram video. All the entries were really good, from little kids to adults. Also, this was the first year we received AI art. We are so excited to have Scott Anderson as our winner. He is a Westmont College professor of art which is so cool, and he’s been published in the Village Voice and Hollywood Reporter! We did the reveal of the winner today and are selling the t-shirts and posters as we speak. We also have a new line of merch that is avocado themed, designed by Ben Mascari,whois on our board. He owns Serigraph Resort Wear and the Carpinteria T-Shirt Co. The California Avo Fest is October 3 to 5 with hours expanded to Friday 10 am to 11 pm, Saturday 10 am to 10 pm, and Sunday 11 am to 7 pm.”

Anderson’s winning design features an avocado resting on a beach towel with a beach ball and umbrella at the Carpinteria Beach with the Channel Islands in the background. Anderson also rendered the typography fonts and color choices. I asked him about his inspiration for the design and he explained: “We live in a beautiful coastal community and that seemed to be the obvious solution is to have an avocado at the beach. The typography color palette is taken from the colors of avocados. The design is digitally painted. I’m available to sign posters and t-shirts! I’m happy to contribute to this Santa Barbara County tradition. Carpinteria Beach was part of my childhood. My grandfather retired from NYC to Carpinteria and lived on Ash Street. I would go to my grandfather’s house for the weekend and the Carp beach on Sundays for family beach day.”

At Westmont College, Anderson’s specialties are Illustration, Painting, Drawing, Computer Graphics, and Graphic Design. He received his MFA in illustration from the University of Hartford, and an MA in illustration from Syracuse University. His illustration work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, L.A. Weekly, the Village Voice, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, MAD Magazine, and created book covers for the popular “Who Is” series from the Grosset & Dunlap division of Penguin Books. He is a gold and bronze award recipient from the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles. Anderson exhibits paintings with Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara. Check out his work at www.scottandersonstudio.com  

411: www.avofest.org