Students design their own success after winning national awards

Ellie Spickett, from Preston and David Shorrock, from Longton were among a group of six from the University of Central Lancashire who picked up creative awards at the ‘Oscars’ of the design industry.

The undergraduates beat off competition from thousands of students across the world to receive ‘coloured pencils’ at the prestigious D&AD (Design and Art Direction) New Blood Awards 2020.

The awards recognise outstanding work in the areas of design and advertising and winners receive either a wood, graphite, yellow, white or black pencil trophy.

The four UCLan graphic designers and two advertising students worked on a joint project and won a Graphite and four Wood awards.

Final year student Ellie, 22, won a Wooden Pencil. Her winning work was an art direction piece, telling the time via the sun to indicate ‘Martini Time’.

The former Our Lady’s Catholic High School and Cardinal Newman College student said:: "I was ecstatic when I found out I’d won a D&AD Award as it’s such a prestigious competition for young designers."

Wooden Pencil winner David Shorrock, from Longton, designed his way to success with a fun and convenient food delivery experience for Generation Z with his Save Our Stomachs project.

The idea from the 21-year-old allows users who have a hangover, unexpected flat gathering or an all-night study session to send a distress signal to their nearest Burger King outlet for a fast food fix.

The former Hutton Grammar School and Runshaw College student said: "It's something I’ve wanted since college and I used to walk past the wall of previous D&AD winners every day in university and that always motivated me so to finally receive an award is fantastic, I’m incredibly content and looking forward to the future."

Among the other winners was graphic designer Hannah Gurney who was awarded a Graphite Pencil for her creation around M-WAY, a new bike scheme for Manchester focused on giving pride back to the city.

Second Year Agatha Blazey, was awarded a Wooden Pencil, a year ahead of most other winners. The 21-year-old, whose winning design was for a Rome based bike hire scheme called Roam Bikes and advertising students Meiling Yu and Xuebing Liu also collected a Wooden Pencil for their Lego creations which encourage people to use their old Lego to build bird feeders.

Besdies the Pencils, several students were also awarded Ones to Watch Awards by D&AD New Blood Judges at the event. They were: Emma Barber, Chunbo Wang, Ran Duan, Sophie Gwilt, YuKun Li and Daniel Nelson.

It is thought that only six other universities in the world have gained more D&AD nominations that UCLan in the past decade.