“Celebrating Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. Day and Black History Month,” an exhibit featuring posters designed by Penn State students in the University’s 30th annual MLK poster competition, is on display in the entry lobby of Pattee Library, January 15 through February 28, 2015. This year’s theme is “Now, More than Ever.”

The student posters were created in Graphic Design 400, Time and Sequence, a course that exposes students to real-world design with a fixed deadline and client and prescribed project specifications. It also gets the students involved in a public service project.

The display illustrates a variety of approaches to this year’s theme and demonstrates the abilities of Penn State design students.

Judges from the commemorations planning committee selected as the winning poster, the design by Meaghan Lee Cafferty, a junior graphic design major at Penn State. Her design has been duplicated on buttons and posters to be distributed for Penn State’s 2015 MLK celebration.

In November 1983, former President Ronald Reagan signed into law a national holiday to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1986, Penn State began its official recognition of the holiday on the third Monday in January, celebrating the life of this civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who was assassinated in 1968, at the age of 39.