Commendations & Shortlists!

Some great news towards the end of the 2019-2020 term to help get us all through lockdown

Firstly our students have again been recognised with commendations in the 2020 YCN Student Awards.HNC Graphic Design students Valentina Torella and Elia Ballesteros picked up commendations for their submissions to briefs by Camden Town Brewery and Fedrigoni / Oliver Bonas respectively. This brings the course's run of commendations dating back as far as 2008 to a total of 21.

The YCN Awards started in 2001. Each year YCN publishes a collection of live creative, marketing and business challenges — written by partners, and distributed across the Further & Higher Education network.   Check out this year's full list of Commendations here and you can read a bit more about the success, including some nice quote over on the main college blog.

Secondly, we are also celebrating 4 of our final year students making the shortlist for the Marketing Society Star Awards.  Huge congratulations go to Melinda Babai, Gonzalo Cervilla, Balaz Hirth and Rachel Nesbit who all worked incredibly hard during the initial weeks of lockdown to complete their pitches for this competition. Check out the full shortlist here.  This year the Star Awards is a free virtual event,  broadcasting on October 22nd.

DMA 2019 Breakthrough Awards

Congratulations to Ida Bukantyte and Marta Winogrodzka who were both shortlisted for the DMA Breakthrough Awards 2019. Both were given the opportunity pitch to the DMA panel and the client, Direct Line, in London, and then attend the awards event, alongside with the other  finalists, as well as the great and good from across the Marketing community in the UK.


Ida (left) and Marta with their DMA Awards.

Ida picked up the Silver award with her ‘Don’t Guess’ solution, and Marta secured Bronze for ‘That moment’. The winning pair, Jack Brodie and Brodie Childs from Edinburgh Napier, shared a cash prize of £1,000, with Ida and Marta receiving £500 and £250 respectively. All four were also offered a placement at Direct Line Group’s agency, MRM McCann.

Concours d’écriture créative 2019

The HND Graphics class currently have an exhibition on show in Edinburgh at the French Institute. The set of 37 typographic posters are the result of an annual creative writing competition - 2019 concours d’écriture créativen - co-organised by Edinburgh Napier University, the University of Edinburgh, the University of St Andrews, Edinburgh College, the Franco-Scottish Society, the Goethe-Institut Glasgow and the Institut français d’Ecosse.

An award ceremony for the 2019 concours d’écriture créative took place on the opening night Nov 21st, followed by the exhibition displaying the winning texts in poster format. The exhibition will be on display until 13 December 2019, and is free to view. Some samples -



Quand tout a bascule, written by Julie Donier Meroz, designed by Zoe Leung.



Amants sans frontieres, written by Olivia Walsh, designed by Rachel Nesbitt.



Une lettre aux mais amis, written by Rachel Prowse, designed by Marta Dal Farra.



Le plus mauvais jour de ma vie !  written by Jan Palysa, designed by Melinda Babai



Mn passeport ! written by Viktoria Jancurova, designed by Balazs Hirth

Our newest YCN Winners!

Earlier this week Tutors Alex Gunn and Richie Bisset accompanied our Commended YCN students down to London for the annual YCN Student Awards.  Our winners from HN Graphics were Anne Bender, Ben Neilson, David Symmons (Gumtree brief), Sean  Gordon (Hostelworld brief) and from HN UX Design, Agnieska Koundourakis (Energy Saving Trust brief). Well done all (and here's the full list of commendees).

This year the ceremony was held in Toynbee Hall in East London, and featured a keynote talk by Pentagram's Astrid Stavro.

These commendations get more difficult to win each year as the competition gets larger, with 1000s of entries from UK and International Universities and Arts Schools for some of the more popular briefs.  Since 2008 our Graphics course has now racked up 18 of these wins so the pressure is on to repeat our success in 2020.




Sean, Ben and David.



Agnieska and Anne.

Pics by Richie, nice work.

YCN Quartet

YCN have announced their commended students for 2018/2019, and Edinburgh College have garnered no less than six awards - including a stunning haul of 4 commendations for our Graphic Design students.

HNC Graphic Design students Anne Bender, Ben Neilson and David Symmons all won for their submissions to the Gumtree brief, whilst their classmate Sean Gordon was amongst the winners for his work on the Hostelworld brief.  Congratulations also to HNC UX Design student Agneszka Koundourakis (Energy Saving Trust), and Emma Pye (Gumtree). Well done all!

 We've had many multiple winning years at YCN, but this is the first time we have not entered any team submissions, so each individual win is extra special.  We'll be taking our winners down to London in September for the YCN Awards Ceremony at the Barbican.

Full results are on the New Now YCN website.

DMA Breakthrough Finalists

Huge congratulations to Blanca Jiminez, Natasha Ryan and Joy Mooney who have all been announced as finalists for the DMA Breakthrough Award for their work on the Direct Line brief.

The three final year students will be travelling down to London during the first week in December, along with tutor Helena Good, to pitch their idea to the DMA panel, and then attend the awards night on Dec 4th!

YCN At The Barbican

Earlier this week we attended the YCN Awards in London to see five Edinburgh College students (four from Graphic  Design and one from User Experience Design) receive YCN Commendations.

YCN has been going now since 2001,  and we have been regularly attending the awards since 2008. This year Director Nick Defty introduced the ceremony at the Barbican with a nice summary of the YCN ethos, its aims and achievements since its inception. He talked about some of the challenges currently faced by the Creative Industries, and also the opportunities encouraged by YCN, things like collaboration, fresh ideas and inclusion.

This year there were three guest speakers - Ciara Phelan and Dorcas Brown from Grand Matter,  Anna Carpen, Creative Director at And Rising, and James Greenfield, the co-founder of Koto.  As always these speakers were tasked with providing words of wisdom and advice to the YCN Commendees, and their efforts were insightful, amusing and hugely appreciated.  James Greenfield in particular stuck a great note when he advised all creative students to try and eliminate worry from their work, and just get on which developing great ideas.

HND Graphics students Iain Waugh, Kit Lawson and Kryz Wajand produced winning entries for Dogs Trust, Art Fund and British Gymnastics respectively, with Natasha Ryan and Sophie McKinlay (from the HND UXD course) commended for the Action on Hearing Loss brief. All received a wonderful YCN wooden block this year, designed by Tom Forsyth.

Since 2009 the HN Graphics course has amassed no less that 19 YCNs, a formidable feat competing against Art Schools and Universities across the UK and Europe.

Its become a tradition on these visits to the YCN Awards to catch up with any former graduates who are now working in London, and this year we met up with 2015 Graduate Olga Kominek, who went on to study Graphic Design at Glasgow School of Art, graduating this year with a 1st BA(Hons). Olga is now working as an intern with design and fashion magazine Wallpaper*. You can check out her work over on behance.




Kryz, Kit and Natasha at the YCN reception.


Iain Waugh, Natasha Ryan, and Tutor Alex Gunn


YCN solid wooden blocks


Kit Lawson gets on stage at the Barbican.

Four Commendations

YCN have announced the commendations for their annual student awards, with our HND Graphics course picking up no less than four of them. This is the most commendations we've had in a single year (the course chalked up three commendations in both 2011 and 2015). This year Iain Waugh, Kit Lawson and Kryz Wajand produced winning entries for Dogs Trust, Art Fund and British Gymnastics.

YCN had a late announcement for the Action on Hearing Loss brief, with Natasha Ryan achieving a commendation for her submission.  Our sister course HND Interactive Design also secured a commendation for this brief for Sophie McKinlay, meaning that five students for the HN Visual Communication area will be travelling to London in September to the YCN Awards.

Samples from the Commendations -

Iain Waugh - Dogs Trust




Natasha Ryan - Dogs Trust








Krys Wajand - British Gymnastics






Kit Lawson - Art Fund



More : Full list of 2018 Commendations

Star Creative Shortlist 2018

We're celebrating good news from the Marketing Society Scotland, who have announced their annual shortlist of six students for the Star Creative Award 2018. Our HND final year student Niamh Curran has made the shortlist, alongside students from Robert Gordon's, DJCAD and Dundee University.

The award is in the Development category, sponsored by Union Direct, and requires students from Universities and Colleges in Scotland to submit a written proposal to a brief set by a high-profile client.  This year, the client was STV Creative, and the brief was to devise a campaign to expand STV's reach with younger audiences across Scotland.

The shortlisted students will all pitch their developed ideas to the judging panel at the Union Agency, and the winner will be announced at the Marketing Society Star Awards, the annual celebration of Scotland's world-class marketing community, in June at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh.  You can find out more about the awards, including the shortlists across all the professional categories, at the Star Awards 2018 website.

Over the course of the last few years our course has produced five winners of this award, including the winning student in each of the past four years.

YCN Awards

Final Year student Jeff Gillan has won a Commendation from YCN for his creative solution to the Cornetto brief.  Jeff's concept 'Snap, Share and Scoop' features some playful copy and a nice user experience.  Check out the full submission on Jeff's Behance 







Jeff can now look forward to a trip to London in September for the annual YCN Awards, alongside classmate Ildiko Rohonka who won a commendation for her solution to the Quorn brief, which you can also view on her Behance.  Well done guys!

Another Breakthrough

Earlier this week the shortlist for this year’s DMA Breakthrough Award, sponsored by The Economist, were announced.

Entries came from 11 different Universities and Colleges around the UK, with students studying anything from advertising and marketing to graphic design and psychology. The shortlist included two of our current HND students, Sam Haynes and Jennifer Grieve, who submitted a standout solution for the Economist's direct mail brief. The winner(s) will take home a paid internship at a top agency and a £1,000 cash prize, with second place pocketing £500 and third place receiving £250.

Last year our HND student Ayesha Islam's submission for the East of England Co-Op brief took the Breakthrough Award, and she won a month-long placement in London at Proximity.

Sam and Jennifer will be travelling to London on Dec 6th to the DMA Awards - good luck guys!

We Luv Better Sleep

Two of our NC design students - Aga Pomaranska and Kyle Lamond - recently picked up an award in a national competition set by the Sleep Council -  an organisation funded by bed manufacturers to promote the importance of a good night's sleep.

The brief was to create a campaign to help increase general awareness of the need for good sleep, and the key message from the client was to 'get eight hours of sleep and love the feeling of being rested, focused, happier & healthier'. The target audience was 18-25 / all genders - the biggest consumers of smartphone technology, which evidence suggests affects the brain’s ability to produce melatonin, the chemical that regulates sleep.

Aga and Kyle took a bold typographic approach, and combined Frutiger and Din Pro, set in the style of text speak, to make their copy catchy and easy to remember.  They also directed and shot their own photography. For more details on the competition, and some nice quotes, check out the press release on the Edinburgh College website.

Our YCN Winners!

Milestones : Zombie

This year's ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) student assessment featured a brief entitled 'Milestones', which asked students to explore a subject of their choice and create a milestone in that subject, primarily through the use of typography.

HND student Simon Griffith's solution was an exploration of the evolution and history of the Zombie movie, designed in the form of a single page website. Simon's concept was to explore the subject without reference to the visual imagery and composition we normally associate with the genre, and instead to look back at a classic pre-digital format, microfiche.

A minimalist menu-based layout, with a great colour scheme, daring use of whitespace and beautifully crafted typography all support the detailed wikipedia-sourced content in this highly original piece of information design.


















You can check out samples from all the ISTD projects on our Pinterest board. Subjects the students explored for this project include the Hubble Telescope, the history of high heels, the genius of Nikola Tesla, Brutalism in Modernism, and a seminal heavyweight boxing match.

Maggie's Winner

One of our HND Graphic Design students, Stephanie Dalzell, was named winner ina  recent project the class did for cancer charity Maggie’s, to design a corporate gift to give to charity patrons. Stephanie's design was for a ceramic candle holder design, and featured a laser-cut image of the local Maggie’s centre.



This project was instigated by stalwart mentor Graham Neish, who brought Maggie’s in meet the students and set a brief to imagine an object that would reflect the spirit of Maggie’s and which could be produced as a thank-you gift for patrons.

The students visited Maggie’s Edinburgh so they could see for themselves how creativity in architecture and design play a vital role in making the centres calm and uplifting places. Maggie’s came up with a shortlist of five students, who all presented to the charity, and announced the winner at Granton Campus last Wednesday.

Marie McQuade, development director at Maggie’s, said: “Stephanie particularly impressed us with a creation that beautifully illustrates the hopefulness of Maggie’s Centres. It will make a wonderful gift for our patrons.”

More info on the project at the Edinburgh College website.

Multi-tasking

Midway through the placement month, Helena spent today out on agency visits, whilst the HNC group had a day of multi-tasking, working on their current project (a re-brand concept for Matalan), plus submitting work to the Roses Student Awards, which deadlines this Friday.  All the entrants' mounted artwork was all sent by courier this afternoon by our learning assistant, Tanis Grandison.

Earlier this week we also held our Design Buddy event last night, with lots of our former students, now working at many of Edinburgh's best agencies, coming into meet, mentor, and collaborate with our students (more on this event in a later post).


Studio work - packaging up for Roses (Alex De Sousa).


Lab work - a new typeface for Matalan (by Ignacy Nawrocki).


Sketchbook - the cover tells the story.

Star Creative Shortlist

For the fourth consecutive year we're celebrating good news from the Marketing Society Scotland, who have shortlisted two of our final year design students, Calum Mackinnon and Andy Palfreyman, for the Star Creative Award 2014.   This award is in the Development category, sponsored by Union Direct, and requires students from Universities and Colleges in Scotland to submit a written proposal to a brief set by a high-profile client, in this case John Lewis. Only six entries make the shortlist, and they are then required to develop their idea and present it to the judging panel early in May, and a win this year would secure HND Graphic Design a third successive winner, after Steven Brown (2012) and Jonathan Walton (2013).

The winner is announced at the Marketing Society Star Awards, on June 12th at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh, the annual celebration of Scotland's world-class marketing community. You can find out more about the awards, including the shortlists across all the professional categories, at the Star Awards 2014 website.

Protest!

HND student Ross Turnbull has just submitted this entry to the ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) Student Assessment for 2014. This year ISTD set five briefs, and Ross chose Number 4, 'Protest!' - which challenges the designer to explore the idea of protest via typography. Ross' solution, inspired by Constructivism and Punk, was to create a pocket-sized 'Guide to Safe Protesting', which could be distributed in a range of A-sized double-sided posters and then folded down into a handy pamphlet. As well as sketchbooks and the final artwork, Ross had to submit a detailed annotation of his typesetting and layout strategy:

Sketchbooks:



Annotations:





Artwork:





Insitu:





The Pamphlet: