Major D&AD success for University College Falmouth

University College Falmouth scooped five major Design & Art Direction (D&AD) awards last week: A First Prize Yellow Pencil and a Commendation at the D&AD Global Student Awards, and three Best New Blood awards at the D&AD's New Blood exhibition.

D&AD is a not-for-profit organisation that represents the international design, advertising and creative communities. It sets industry standards, educates and inspires the next generation, and promotes the importance of creativity, innovation and ideas within the business community.

At the D&AD Global Student Awards Ceremony, held in London's King's Cross on Thursday evening, the First Prize Student Yellow Pencil for the Graphic Design Packaging category went to Vicky Barlow for her response to the brief to create packaging and point-of-sale material for Homebase's ‘grow your own' fruit and vegetable range for novice gardeners.

"To win a First Prize Yellow Pencil at the D&AD Global Student Awards is a remarkable achievement and we are incredibly proud of Vicky's success, particularly when the lead judge in the packaging category, Bruce Duckworth from Turner Duckworth, has said that this was the best standard that he has judged," said BA(Hons) Graphic Design Course Leader, Jon Unwin. "This is our eighth First Prize Yellow Pencil in the past five years and it is a testament to the quality of teaching delivered by the course."

Toby Derham from MA Creative Advertising also won a Commendation along with fellow student, Amy Holman, in the Advertising Press category, for their response to the Create Not Hate brief to create a powerful copy-based press campaign encouraging people to see the potential in Britain's youth, and to drive them to the Create Not Hate website.

At a separate D&AD event - New Blood at London's Olympia - that showcases the very best graduate work from over 180 advertising and design courses, and attracts in the region of 8,000 visitors from the creative industries around the world, a panel of judges comprising leading industry figures from advertising agencies such as Leo Burnett and M&C Saatchi, and publications such as Design Week and Wallpaper selected Best New Blood, which is D&AD's version of Best in Show.

From a total of approximately 2,000 students, the work of twenty-five individuals was selected for Best New Blood awards both for the quality of their work and the way in which it was presented. The winners receive one year's D&AD membership; inclusion on D&AD's online portfolio site, talentpool; and an invitation to participate in the D&AD's successful graduate placement scheme.

Three of the twenty-five Best New Blood awards were presented to Falmouth students - Toby Derham and Luke Laszczak from MA Creative Advertising, Alan Clarke from BA(Hons) Graphic Design, and Mark Boardman from BA(Hons) Illustration.

"This further establishes our status as one of the best illustration courses in the country," commented BA(Hons) Illustration Course Leader, Professor Alan Male. "All of the students whose work was exhibited at New Blood will undoubtedly make their mark within the industry. Mark's achievement is testament to the high quality and standard of work being produced on the course."

MA Creative Advertising Course Leader, Chris Waite added: "The competition amongst young advertising creatives to succeed in this, the most prestigious competition and exhibition in our field, is intense. It gets tougher every year. My colleagues on the MA Creative Advertising course and I are delighted for Amy, Luke and Toby, who have worked very hard to reach this high standard in just one concentrated, postgraduate year of study."

University College Falmouth has enjoyed an enviable track record of success at the D&AD awards during the past six years. The D&AD has positioned the College in sixth place out of 200 universities across the world who have achieved success in the award scheme during this period, with 43 individual student successes - either ‘in book' awards, commendations, First or Second Prize Yellow Pencils - having been awarded between 2004 and 2009.

For more information about these awards, visit http://dandad.typepad.com/dandad/2009/07/dad-best-new-blood.html and www.dandad.org/studentawards09

For more information about BA(Hons) Graphic Design, BA(Hons) Illustration and MA Creative Advertising at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk

University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2012/2013 that will be unique to the South West.

The College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

Ends

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email: jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk

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