Each year our Graphic Design students put their experience into practice by working on a range of real world industry briefs. Addressing communication problems to meet the demands of client and audience is their game, and it’s at this crucial point in their career that our students step up to the plate by entering international design competitions, where briefs have been set by a wide range of companies and organisations.
D&AD Student Awards is one of the major design competitions that our course engages with. Each year our students enter the competition and get to work on commercial projects that challenge and stimulate them, as well as expose them to the pressures and demands of the industry that they’re going into. Although many of our students enter of course only a few achieve competition success – but for everyone the experience of producing professional work and the resulting boost in their confidence is, of course, the whole point.
Those that do win, however, join a long line of students with a special reason to celebrate their hard won success. From the D&AD website: ‘The D&AD Student Awards have been helping students break into the industry since 1978. Winning truly marks you out as one of the very best. You get noticed. In fact, 76% of graduating Student Awards winners walk into a job or placement in less than three months.’
We’re very pleased to announce that Sam Hartill, Rob Cronshaw and David Morris have each achieved ‘Best In Year’ status at this year’s awards. Proud warriors of Graphic Design, here’s what they have to say about their new found success…
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Sam Hartill – Level 3
Brand identity design – 4 select
‘To win a best of year award from D&AD is an amazing feeling, working so close to a brief and being rewarded for it, was a huge surprise. I learned tremendous amounts when answering this brief, being quite new to campaigns and branding, especially a new channel for an existing branded channel, was quite a challenge.’
Launch announcement newspaper – 4 select
‘I ended up thoroughly enjoying this project with all the different aspects that needed to be produced in real depth, which pushed my skills as a designer further, building my confidence within branding and identity design.’
See more of Sam’s work on her website http://samanthahartilldesigns.co.uk
See more of Sam’s and other successful student work on the D&AD site
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Rob Cronshaw – Level 3
Spread from Typographic Circle publication
‘This brief was set by Pentagram to design a supplement for the Typographic Circle’s magazine about the designers who have given talks for them. The three designers I chose to feature were Angus Hyland, Magpie Studio and Richard Morrison.’
Illustration detail from Typographic Circle publication
‘Each of the issues had a typeface that was textured using the work of the featured designer, this helps make each of them look individual, while still working together as a set. The insides were kept clean, with minimal typography to show off each designer’s work.’
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Typographic detail from Typographic Circle publication
‘I was really pleased with the outcome of the project, but it’s great to have that feeling validated externally. Especially by people as prestigious as the D&AD judges.’
See more of Rob’s work on his website http://robcronshaw.co.uk/
See more of Rob’s and other successful student work on the D&AD site
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David Morris – Level 2
Cover design – ‘he said she said’ publication
‘This D&AD project outcome was a supplement to the typographic circle’s magazine – ‘Circular’. It had to feature artists and designers who had given talks at the circle. The supplement could be of any size & format so I chose to design a newspaper but also to break the rules of what is considered conventional newspaper design’
Typographic detail from ‘he said she said’ publication
‘What I found interesting was the way in which each designer had a different ethos, and how they clashed/complimented each other. So my publication was driven by short quotes which would be interesting when placed in the same format.’
Spread from ‘he said she said’ publication
‘For this project, I created my own typeface based on art deco fonts and styles. Using this along with the grid to add structure is what gave the newspaper it’s visual language. Also, I had the Newspaper Club print the supplement. They were wonderfully helpful and taught me a lot about print specs for newspaper design.’
See more of David’s and other successful student work on the D&AD website
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