Designers draw on their own success

Gail McFadzean, Jemma Redpath and Ya Wang all claimed top spots in their individual graphics and advertising categories.

Four Pencil award categories are handed out for a number of achievements. Winners of the various awards at the D&AD ceremony received one of the Wood, Yellow, Black or Graphite Pencil trophies.

Jemma (pictured) won the only Yellow Pencil in her 
category, given to those who exhibit ‘the most outstanding work that achieves true creative excellence’.

She said: “I’m really excited to win this award and feel like all the hard work I put into the project has paid off. It is an honour to win D&AD Award and a fantastic way to end my time at UCLan.”

Ya Wang was awarded a Wooden Pencil for her Dropbox project, which analysed the number of Chinese students who had decided to leave Asia to study in Preston. This category is awarded to the ‘best in advertising and design for the year’.

Winners are handed a Graphite Pencil for ‘stand out work, beautifully executed with an original and inspiring idea at its core.’ Gail won this trophy for her project Routes, an interactive social campaign highlighting the difficulty in trying to find a home.

She said: “Just to be shortlisted was an honour so to receive a Graphite Pencil blew my mind, especially since I’d had a last-minute panic and nearly didn’t submit my entry.

“Winning was a very nice way to finish up the year and I’m particularly proud that the UCLan winners this year were female as the world of design and advertising is still very male dominated.

“Throughout our time at UCLan we were given the opportunity to meet and show our work to guests from different agencies and roles within the advertising industry.

“Their feedback has been invaluable in helping to produce portfolios in line with what is expected in the 
industry.”