Adobe Systems has announced the winners of the eighth Adobe Design Achievement Awards. The annual student design and film competition is one of the world’s most prestigious, recognising the most talented emerging graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, motion-graphics artists, filmmakers and computer artists from leading design colleges and universities worldwide. This year, more than 2,700 students from 33 countries submitted work, setting a participation record.
Winners from Mainz, Finalists from Würzburg and Schwäbisch Gmünd
Three participants from Germany are taking awards home. In the Live Action category, Mathias Kohl and Christoph Schulte of Mainz University of Applied Sciences impressed with a detective film that visualised a detective’s thoughts and perceptions through a combination of 2D animation and live-action footage. Stefan Bräutigam, also from Mainz University of Applied Sciences, won the Print Design Multi-Page category. His project, entitled “Overnewsed but Uninformed”, combined detailed information with innovative diagrams in the form of a daily newspaper. Marc Oswald of Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Design was also a finalist in Mobile Design, while Paul Grabowski of Würzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences reached the final in Print Design Single Page.
“The diversity and quality of the work submitted by students from every corner of the world is genuinely impressive,” said Ann Lewnes, Adobe Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing. “The Adobe Design Achievement Awards enable participants to create compelling projects that they can share with other students and with the design community.”
Career Springboard
“Participating in the Adobe Design Achievement Awards was a career highlight and immediately brought my work international attention,” said Stephen Neary, a 2006 finalist in the Motion Graphics category who is currently working at Blue Sky Studios on “Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”. “The competition brings students and leading designers from around the world together to discuss how technology influences the creation and distribution of rich content.”
Every finalist was invited to the ceremony in New York and also took part in a tour of several studios. This year’s tour was offered by New York companies AKQA, The Barbarian Group, C&G Partners, Eyebeam, frog design Inc., karlssonwilker inc., Mucca Design, Open, Pentagram, SpotCo, Trollback+Company and WDDG. The programme also includes internships and opportunities for students to exhibit their projects during the year. Category winners additionally received a selection of Adobe products and a cash prize of US$3,000.
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All Winners at a Glance
At a gala in the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York, emerging talent was recognised in 13 categories:
Animation — Winner: Rafael Sommerhalder, Royal College of Art, London. Finalists: Chia-Chien Mai and Tatachapon Lertwirojkul, School of Visual Arts, New York City.
Browser-Based Design — Winner: JR Fabito, Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Finalists: Diana Antunes, University of Coimbra, Portugal; and Hyebin Park and Jhoo-Young Cha, Seoul National University, Korea.
Designer/Developer Collaboration — Winner: Jonnie Hallmann, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. Finalists: Won Young So, Kookmin University, Korea; and a Carnegie Mellon University team led by Catarina Pereira, Pittsburgh.
Illustration — Winner: Dongjoo Seo, Kookmin University, Korea. Finalists: Jacky Tsai, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London; and Eric Collins, School of Visual Arts, New York.
Photography — Winner: Matt Sartain, Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Finalists: John Sloan, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington; and Ian Aleksander Adams, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia.
Design Installation — Winner: Jiyeon Song, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California. Finalists: Freddie Yauner, Royal College of Art, London; and the team led by Dofl Y.H. Yun, London College of Communication.
Live Action — Winners: Mathias Kohl and Christoph Schulte, Mainz University of Applied Sciences.
Mobile Design — Winner: the team led by Valentina Venza, IUAV University of Venice, Italy. Finalists: Chia-Ying Lin, Parsons The New School for Design, New York City; and Marc Osswald, Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Design.
Motion Graphics — Winners: Ryan Uhrich and Marcos Ceravalo, Vancouver Film School, Canada. Finalists: Tal Gliks, BAU Escola Superior de Disseny, Spain; and the team led by Cole Nielsen, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Non-Browser-Based Design — Winner: Jae Chul Bae, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston. Finalist: Leilah Rampa, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Packaging — Winner: the team led by Tseng-Chih Huang, Mingchi University of Technology, Taiwan. Finalists: Eulie Lee, Pratt Institute, New York; and Strahan McMullen, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California.
Print Design Multi-Page — Winner: Stefan Bräutigam, Mainz University of Applied Sciences. Finalists: Kyong Eun Kim, Kookmin University, Korea; and Gretchen Nash, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California.
Print Design Single Page — Winner: John Passafiume, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. Finalists: Ken Meier and David Yun, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; and Paul Grabowski, Würzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences.
The winning projects can be viewed at http://www.adaaentry.com/adaalive.html. A panel of experts assessed the winners on the originality and effectiveness with which their project content communicated. The jury consisted of Emily Chang of Ideacodes, Joshua Davis of Joshua Davis Studios, David Gensler of Keystone Design Union, Eric John of Forum Nokia, Adrian Johnson of Adrian Johnson Ltd., Maya Kopytman of C&G Partners, Michael Lebowitz of Big Spaceship, Rebeca Mendez of Rebeca Mendez Design, Tina Roth Eisenberg of Swissmiss Studio, Stan Szymanski of Sony Pictures Imageworks, Armin Vit of UnderConsideration and independent film producer Joan Raspo.
Numerous companies again supported the awards with considerable time and effort this year. Category sponsors were iStockphoto, Nokia, Xerox and X-Rite.
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