Seniors Cecilia Jansen and Maria Schmid didn’t start painting the Off-Campus Coalition’s banner until Saturday. But by Sunday night, they had created the winning work of art for the first event of this year’s homecoming competition.

The top five teams in this year’s space-themed Banner Drop were announced Monday, ranking in order from first to fifth: OCC, Olds, Niedfeldt, Kalloway, and Simpson.

Jansen and Schmid came up with the @hcadmartians Instagram theme of OCC’s banner on the porch of West Wing. They knew if they could cover all the bases the judges look for yearly, they could place.

“There’s always so much controversy surrounding banner judging, so I wanted to make sure that our banner incorporated all the aspects the judges were looking for: creativity, neatness, theme incorporation, and overall impression,” Jansen said. “I figured if we came up with a creative enough idea, we’d be able to nail the rest of the categories with strong composition and good craftsmanship.”

With some dedication, they got the banner done in time for the midnight drop Sunday evening.

“We nailed the bedsheet to my housemate Maria’s wall and hung up newspapers to protect the wall from the paint,” Jansen said. “We used a projector to trace the outlines of the composition and freehanded the rest of it. I’d say overall the banner was a process of procrastination, tears, and just the right amount of cuss words.” 

According to junior Lyndi Klacik, the Olds banner took inspiration from the 1960s Space Race. She said they wanted a theme recognizable but also creative and new. 

“For our final design, we decided on a movie poster style with fun elements like the disco ball UFO,” Klacik said.

Olds Residence women gave up entire afternoons to work on the banner and spent more than 100 hours painting, Klacik said. They did not face disasters while making the banner, but on the way up the hill, they thought their banner would be destroyed by the rain.

“When it came time to bring the banner up to the union, it was pouring outside,” Klacik said. “Lightning was flashing, and we thought the banner would get soaked. We threw a fuzzy robe over it and booked it to the union. We came in fully drenched, but the banner was safe, and we have a memory we’ll never forget.”

The Niedfeldt Residence banner, which took third place, was created in 30 hours by junior Caleb Ostella and other residents of Niedfeldt. According to Ostella, the theme of the banner was inspired by space comics from the 1960s and ’70s. 

“I debated a lot of other ideas, such as ‘Interstellar,’ ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ and ‘Star Wars,’” Ostella said. “But I ultimately found the comic book idea to be more unique and interesting.”

Ostella said the process behind creating the banner was adaptive. 

“I designed the banner digitally, doing some photo-bashing and normal painting techniques, and free-handed the design onto the banner with a marker,” Ostella said. “I used some random objects in the Niedfeldt basement as straight edges — a screen door and a picture frame, I think — taped the lettering and various larger blocks, then painted it using acrylic in parts refining it as it progressed.”

Ostella said the process was well worth the time. “I really enjoyed working on the banner with my dorm mates, and am proud it represents Niedfeldt this year,” Ostella said.

The Kalloway team — residents of Galloway and Koon — was initially inspired by Star Wars movie posters, but in the end went with the “Gallowayo observes the KOON” theme.

A touch of uniqueness shines through their banner, which uses real lights as stars, sophomore Mason Settergren said.

“We had the idea of putting lights on the banner as stars from the very beginning, and the design we decided on ended up working perfectly for us to incorporate them in the night sky,” Settergren said.

Galloway and Koon teamed up for more than 12 hours to make the banner.

“We had a group of about five Galloway guys do all the painting, and one freshman from Koon programmed and wired the twinkling lights,” Settergren said. “In total we probably spent 12 or more hours throughout the week before banner drop.”

According to junior Cole Timmler, the inspiration for Simpson Residence’s banner was the Saturn V, the Apollo 11 mission rocket.

Timmler said the process took two weeks with the help of senior Owen Johnson, junior Alex Buehrer, sophomore Jed Hamilton, and freshman Moses Dong.

“It was impressive to see that much dedication to something so quickly into the year,” Timmler said. “We sketched the entire thing just by eyeballing it, then painted in the rest with acrylic paint.” 

According to Timmler, 30 minutes before they took the banner to the union, they realized that the year on the banner was 2005 instead of 2025.

“We had to rewrite the numbers on the banner 30 mins before because we accidentally wrote and painted 2005 instead of 2025,” Timmler said. “We also kept stepping in all the paint. It was 100% my fault every time, too.”