YSDN wraps up Adobe Design Achievement Awards

Images clockwise from top left: Boom Boom Baby, Christina Lo, Man Wai Wong, Tissue Box, Brian Banton, Heterosis, Neon Unicorn, Christia Fung

The York University/Sheridan Institute Joint Program in Design (YSDN) congratulates recent Master's graduate Brian Banton and undergrads Christia Fung, Christina Lo (BDes 2010) and Man Wai Wong (BDes 2010) for their impressive showing in the highly competitive international Adobe Design Achievement Awards. All four were given an all-expenses paid trip to the awards ceremony, which took place October 23 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Altogether, the global jury considered more 4,605 submissions from more than 73 countries. YSDN Bachelor of Design students swept the packaging category, with Wong bringing home the prize. Fung and Lo were the other two finalists.

The success of the trio's projects is partly due to their focus on sustainability. Each of the young designers took an innovative approach to making their packaging reusable, considering the ecological bottom line in the construction and lifespan of the material.

Wong's Tissue Box, made from a single piece of paper without toxic adhesives, is collapsible, easily transportable, and completely reusable. Lo's sturdy silkscreened Boom Boom Baby yarn package can be used as a playful knitting bag. Every part of Fung's Neon Unicorn watch packaging can be repurposed, transformed into a range of practical items such as coasters and keychains.

Banton (MDes 2010) won the prize for motion graphics for his thesis project, Heterosis, which he describes as a 'kinetic typeface'. Constructed from transparent acrylic and transparent elastic, the three-dimensional characters are designed by 'blending' two vector lines across a spatial plane. Banton stitched together numerous still images to create the work as a video project. Heterosis previously won a Silver Cube award at the 90th Art Director's Club competition in New York.

Wong and Banton each received a $3000 cash prize, a trophy, a certificate and a package of Adobe software.

This is the second consecutive year that YSDN students have won big in these categories at the Adobe Awards. In 2010, Linna Xu took the prize for packaging and Edeline Bernal for motion graphics.

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards are just the latest in a raft of accolades won by YSDN students this year. This summer, they took 21 of the 49 awards and honourable mentions – including seven of the nine specialty prizes and two awards of excellence – at the Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario student awards.

Established in 1999 as Ontario's first honours Bachelor of Design degree program, YSDN is offered jointly by the Department of Design in York University's Faculty of Fine Arts in Toronto and the Faculty of Animation, Arts and Design at the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Oakville. Alumni of the program have gone on to establish successful careers in Canada and around the world. Recent graduates include Liang Zhang (BDes 2006), art director at the Brooklyn, NYC-based international design agency HUGE Inc; Sharis Shahmiryan (BDes 2007), an award-winning multi-disciplinary designer with The Toronto Star; Sara Cwynar (BDes 2010), staff designer with the New York Times magazine; and Duk Han Lee (BDes 2010), senior designer for CBC News Online.

Media Contact:
Amy Stewart, Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
416-650-8469, amy.stewart@yorku.ca

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