Last call for entries for Adobe Design Achievement Awards

Adobe has announced the final date for entries to 2007’s Adobe Design Achievement Awards as 27 April. This is the last opportunity to submit work for the software giant’s annual student design competition.

The first-prize winners in each category will receive $5,000 and Adobe software, and all the winners and finalists will receive a trip to San Francisco for the prize ceremony, which will take place on 2 August, 2007. The winners and finalists will also receive a tour of leading creative companies in San Francisco, including Pentagram and Goodby, Silverstein and Partners.

The competition is open to students in post-secondary education and features the following categories: Animation, Digital Illustration, Digital Photography, Environmental Graphics and Packaging, Interactive and Web Design, Live Action, Motion Graphics, Print Design Multi-Page, and Print Design Single Page.

Projects entered must be original works and must have been created primarily with Adobe or Macromedia software.

Essential exposure
Former Royal College of Art student Sophie Clements won the Time-Based Media category in 2005 with her short film, Turning the Tide. She’s been pretty busy ever since. “I’ve just finished working on a music video for a guy called Jamie Woon that’s been featured in Dazed and Confused, and now I’m working on a project for the Barbican doing live video projections,” she says. “I’ve also been doing a lot of live collaborations with live music and projections, I’ve got a small gig coming up at the Tate Britain and I’m doing a film for Cannes Lions advertising the awards.”

For Clements, one of the key benefits of winning an Adobe Design Achievement Award was the opportunity of meeting fellow creatives from all over the world. “Going to New York for the awards and getting taken to Sundance was a massive confidence booster,” she says. “Being surrounded by people doing the same things, but hanging out and networking and being a bit more confident made a big difference. When I came back I was like, ‘it’s not so hard to push myself and get out there’.”

Fellow RCA student Matthew Murdoch was a finalist in the Moving Image category of last year’s awards. He has since established himself as a freelance film and video editor working on corporate commercial briefs, music promos and documentaries. He’s also worked on a film, Being There, commissioned by the Arts Council in collaboration with the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund.

For Murdoch, the exposure the Adobe Design Achievement Awards gave him has been vital in furthering his career. ”I’ll meet people at festivals and events now and I’ll say, ‘I made this film’ and they’ll say, ‘Yeah, I’ve seen that’,” he says. “I’m sure it’s because of the great publicity and distribution Adobe has given me.”

For more details on the Adobe Design Achievement Awards and for details on how to enter this year, visit www.adobe.com/education/adaa/