UC Davis olive oil not only tasted good, it looked good at the Los Angeles County Fair's international competition this year.

All three of the university's 2007 olive oil blends received medals: silver for The Silo and Wolfskill, and bronze for Gunrock. Additionally, the university received a bronze medal for the label artwork on The Silo.

The olive oils also scored in this year's Yolo County Fair competition: a gold medal for The Silo, and silvers for Wolfskill and Gunrock.

This was UC Davis' second year of olive oil production, capitalizing on trees that have been part of the campus for decades.

Sal Genito, director of the university's Buildings and Grounds division, came up with the idea of producing UC Davis olive oil but he was quick to credit other employees for their contributions.

"The awards this year validate all the hard work and care that UC Davis faculty and staff put into producing our high quality artisan olive oils," Genito said. "You have made us all very proud."

From the orchard to the bottle, the people behind the olive oil include program manager Dan Flynn of the Buildings and Grounds division, and, for the 2007 label designs, graphic artist Jay Leek of the publications unit of University Communications.

The LA event began in 2000 as the Los Angeles County Fair Olive Oils of the World Competition, with 38 entries. The competition has gained stature and entries — to 396 from 274 producers — and this year it had a new name: the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition.

"About a quarter of the oils tested this year were disqualified for not meeting basic extra virgin quality standards," Genito said.

Paul Vossen, a UC Cooperative Extension farm adviser who teaches olive oil cultivation and sensory evaluation at UC Davis, noted the high-caliber judging: "This was a group of the most renowned olive oil tasters in the world," he told the San Francisco Chronicle for a June 27 article.

With the 22 judges' combined palates, and nearly 400 entries, the newspaper declared that the Los Angeles County Fair event had become "one of the premier olive oil competitions in the world."

All of UC Davis' olive oil names are connected to the university: Gunrock, the mascot stallion; Wolfskill, a university orchard near Winters; and familiar campus places like the Quad and Silo.

To illustrate the 2007 names, Leek used colored pencil to sketch the designs, based on campus photography, then simplified the shapes and rendered them digitally using Adobe Illustrator.

Leek said the style harkens to plakatstil, an early 20th-century poster design style perhaps best exemplified more recently by Bay Area graphic designer Michael Schwab, one of Jay's favorite designers.

In the Los Angeles competition's packaging and design category, the judges honored original illustrations — like Leek's Silo rendering — that served as the "driving element" of package designs.

"This is a really big deal," Genito said of Leek's award. "Of all the oils submitted to this worldwide competition, the judges singled out just a few labels for awards."

On the Net: oliveoil.ucdavis.edu.

GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE

UC Davis' olive oil operation has reaped a number of awards in its two-year history:

LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR

2007 -- Silver medals for The Silo and Wolfskill, and a bronze for Gunrock; plus a bronze for the label artwork on The Silo

2006 -- Best of class and a gold medal for Gunrock, and golds for The Quad and Wolfskill

YOLO COUNTY FAIR

2007 -- A gold medal for The Silo, and silvers for Wolfskill and Gunrock

2006 -- Best of the county and a gold medal for The Quad, a gold for Gunrock and a silver for Wolfskill