College students win Associated British Ports design contest
An HND Visual Communications course group at Ayrshire College took part in a live brief that involved digitally designing a mural for Associated British Ports.
The winning design, which was to feature visuals and text, will be displayed on the gable end of a sandstone lighthouse at Ayr Harbour.
17 students took part in the competition with prizes on offer for the top two designs. After an extensive judging process, the £200 first prize was awarded to Lynda Garman, whose final design will be used, while the £100 runner-up prize was given to Caitlin Barker, whose quote will be incorporated into Lynda’s piece.
Peter McClurg, Visual Communications lecturer at Ayrshire College, said: “We always welcome live briefs because it gives our students the chance to really find out what it’s like working with industry. They must deal with real clients, conduct themselves properly, meet deadlines, and we encourage them to engage with the client and get feedback from them.
“This project reflects the course perfectly as it involves a hands-on drawing element which is then taken into Photoshop and manipulated. We’ve embedded it into one of the units of the course and the entire class group took part.”
Lynda said of her winning design: “I’m absolutely delighted and surprised. Line art is something that I’ve been getting really into in the last couple of years, and have really enjoyed doing, so I used quite a lot of that in the design. Then added depth by using shadow layers. I wanted to make sure the light was quite prominent, with the triangle beam of light shining across the sky.”
Caitlin, 21 from Irvine, said: “This has been the first opportunity I’ve had to work on something outside of college, so having that experience has been fantastic. With the quote, I had written down quite a lot of themed keywords and just worked around something that I felt resonated with the lighthouse.”
Stuart Cresswell, Port Manager at Associated British Ports, said: “From our point of view, it’s been a great experience. It’s been great working with the students and I’ve been really encouraged to see the level of professionalism in the designs. Hopefully it’s been a win-win experience for us and the College, and we’re looking forward to getting the design on the lighthouse later this summer.”
24 May 2022
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