Stars in the Design Distinction Awards, Alexandra Dawson and Sarah Nielsen are forging promising futures in the world of graphic design.

Studying for a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design at EIT, Alex won the Hawke’s Bay tertiary category in the awards while Sarah, in her final year at Hastings Girls’ High School, topped the region’s secondary school section.

A collaboration involving EIT Hawke’s Bay’s ideaschool, UCOL and the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, the dDawards were launched last year as a design challenge for secondary schools in each of the polytechnic regions.

Because the inaugural awards were so keenly contested, the three design schools added the tertiary category for this year’s competition.

Entrants are given a weekend to design a logo, business card, poster and a letterhead for a local cause or event.  The theme for this year’s campaign was the awards themselves.

Alex based her entry on drawing instruments and stationery, manipulating a protractor, paper clips, pencils and a compass to form the name of the awards.  By incorporating “reflected light spots”, she has added sparkle to her design.

The awards provide a great opportunity for students to show what they can achieve, Alex says, and EIT’s ideaschool put on “a really cool night” for those taking part.

Competitors were given access to ideaschool’s resources and at the end of the tight 48-hour time frame they submitted a digital copy of their work for judging.

Loving the graphic design component of her degree studies, Alex says the move from Napier Girls’ High School to EIT was “pretty easy”, particularly with a Year 13 Degree Study Grant covering half her fees.

“It’s a lot more personal here compared to Auckland and Wellington,” she says of EIT campus life.

Like Alex, Sarah received an iPad mini for her win – a significant achievement for the 17-year-old, who strives in expressing her creativity despite the ongoing effects of health complications.

Hastings Girls’ High School teacher Jenny Dickerson says her “innately talented” student is an amazing designer who responded well to the challenges of a competition imposing demands like those in a design practice.

The awards win gives shape to Sarah’s future, the visual arts teacher says, and has inspired other graphic design students to take part next year.

On the judging panel, ideaschool graphics design lecturer Anthony Chiappin says the Year 13 student’s winning design, based on a cut-open lemonade can, was eye-catching and futuristic.

Having come up with the concept, Sarah found the rest of the design process followed easily.

“You had to use constructed text so it was really fun to do, and I was so happy to win.”

While Sarah’s study options remain open for next year, ideaschool is on her shortlist.  Her mother, Krystyna Nielsen, says she would be delighted if EIT is her choice, having enjoyed her own nurse training at EIT.