The young, fashionable crowd had left behind a balmy spring evening only to enter a more tropical zone: the top floor of New York's Felissimo Design House on West 56th Street, where most drank wine and surveyed the anti-fur posters on display but some actually talked about their recent life-lesson in the social-awareness possibilities of this capitalism tool called advertising design.

They had all showed up on this Monday evening in late April to take part in the first leg of the Fur Free Alliance's international Design Against Fur competition, which will produce next year's anti-fur advertising campaign. Judging by the look of things—and by the comments of the three top North American winners—the fur industry doesn't stand a chance in the near future.

The concept behind the competition is inspired: Since the biggest barrier to stopping the fur industry is the fashion world's (with some forward-thinking exceptions) hide-bound belief that wearing the pelts of dead animals is stylish, why not enlist the next generation of design minds to formulate a plan for fashion re-education?

So the Fur Free Alliance, a coalition of more than 30 organizations including The HSUS, sent out the word to design students in North America, continental Europe, and the United Kingdom and Ireland. Students were challenged create an innovative campaign to convince the world that "fur does not belong in the 21st century, and the use of fur and fur trim should be obsolete."

The students were asked for not only a poster design, but also a concept for a $100,000 (or 100,000 Euro) advertising campaign, including marketing materials, T-shirts, media spots, and anything else the student could think of.

The top three winners in North America—first-prize winner Marc Choi, second-place finisher Johna Caggiano, and third-place winner Christine Coscia—received $1,000, $500, and $250 respectively. And this fall, Choi will join the other two regional winners in Paris (where else, eh?), where the Design Against Fur Grand Prix winner will be announced and the official anti-fur campaign will be launched. The overall winner will also receive a $5,000 prize.

The three North American winners were officially selected on April 11 under the lens of the E! television cable network. More than 300 entries were evaluated by a panel that included designer Todd Oldham, Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell, eco-friendly stylist Danny Seo (the man behind The HSUS's FF™ necklace), and leaders in the fashion and design world.

At the Felissimo Design House ceremony a couple of weeks later, HSUS Senior Vice President, Dr. John Grandy, told the audience that the judges were knocked out by the quality of the entries. "Everyone has been more impressed than you can imagine by the quality…The work, the thought, the creativity that has gone into every one of these has been overwhelming and so gratifying to see." Some of the winners seemed a bit dazzled themselves. Choi's almost bemused smile never faded as he related how his James Madison University (in Harrisonburg, Virginia) professor's fur-campaign assignment first drew jeers from his classmates. "I think everyone was like 'fur is bad,' but we didn't know the details about what goes on, and it was pretty shocking actually. I think my whole class was horrified about how many animals are killed and what they do to them."

For Choi, working on the project was an eye-opener in another way, too: It made him think about his own career because it gave him an opportunity, for the first time, to use his design skills for something other than selling products. "I think it's a lot more meaningful to me, and I put more passion into something that has a social relevance. I…learned a lot from this project and the possibility that a design can do more than just look good."

In designing his poster—the clear favorite of the judges—Choi "tried to keep it really simple." The design he choose was a slightly abstract black image of a fox hanging from a red coat-hanger. Under the design, he placed the words: "fur. hang it up for good."

Choi said he purposely steered away from graphic imagery because he didn't believe such imagery would reach the "people who wear fur already, people who this might be geared towards." He wanted to make them think without turning them away.

Second-place winner Caggiano beamed when she described her Parsons School of Design classmates' creative responses when the teacher assigned the project. "Not one of them had similar concepts; they were all totally different," she noted about the students in the New York City school. "One boy in my class had a concept that I really loved. He found out that it took 42 foxes to make a fur coat. And that was his message: It took 42 foxes to make this fur coat. Can you imagine?"

Caggiano's poster features a picture of young foxes "looking at you almost like they're models." Underneath the picture are the words: "'Here's a sneak peak [sic] at this year's newest fall fashions." She thought the foxes worked because they "look like an animal you could pet."

Like Choi, Caggiano had a revelation during the project about how she could apply her design skills toward a more social agenda. "This project wasn't just about a product, but it had a cause. I felt like you could really send a message, and you could really be creative. I felt like there was a reason."

Fashion Institute of Technology student Coscia already knew that she wanted her designs to send a message. The third-place winner, a vegetarian since 13, took her first graphics class in high school "to learn how to create an alternative 'zine." Her poster was the most abstract in concept. Showing a camouflage shirt partially covered by a fur jacket, it reads: "You are what you wear."

"I already knew a lot about fur," said the New York City student. "A couple of people in the class already knew about the fur issue. But the majority of them, I don't think they knew what was behind it."

Coscia's roommate was one of the uninitiated, but that changed quickly. "My roommate watched something on TV about [fur farm] animals in cages. And even though she's a big meat eater, she saw the things on TV, and she can't get it out of her head."

That's what the Design Against Fur contest is all about: planting an image in the mind so that nobody can ever look at fur the same way again.

The next leg of the competition will take place on May 15 in Milan, when the approximately 300 entries from continental Europe will be judged. On May 21, a slightly smaller number of contestants from the United Kingdom and Ireland will have their chance in London. Then it's off to Paris for the final selection.

If the comments of the North American winners are anything to go by, this contest has already had a significant impact: Clearly, some young minds are already looking at fur in a whole new way.

Tanya Mulford is the web editor for wildlife and habitat protection.