A NE Campus student was one of nine finalists in a T-shirt design contest. Cole Watkins, 19, submitted his entry via the Internet after his teacher, Margaret Bucklew, used the contest idea as a class assignment.

"I saw the article in a magazine and used it as a class assignment, then we entered them in the contest," Bucklew said.

Watkins, a 2002 Haltom High School graduate, has been drawing since kindergarten. He won numerous art contests throughout middle school and high school.

Hackerthreads, a three-year-old company, uses designs from independent graphic artists to sell over the Internet. Hackerthreads is an Internet-only company.

"The contests are a way of generating design submissions and finding out their popularity," Tara Reid, a Hackerthreads employee, said.

The Web site www.hackerthreads.com encourages computer-related designs submissions in its non-contest designs gallery.

Watkins' design was an x-ray of a hand on a computer mouse. Watkins said the mouse is a representation of his pencil.

When Watkins checked the Web site Thursday, Feb. 20, he learned he was not the winner of the competition.

"I was a little disappointed, but at least I got that far," he said.

The drawing, which took only two hours for Watkins to complete, finished third in the popular vote, first in freehand and second in the eye portion of the competition. Watkins placed third overall.

As a graphic communication major, Watkins is not sure what direction he will take.

"I always like watching animated movies," he said.

He has an interest in animation and said 3D animation could be a possible career choice.