Trio of UCLan students claim prestigious awards at recent D&AD ceremony
Three advertising students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) have won prestigious Pencil awards at the recent D&AD awards in London.
Gail McFadzean, Jemma Redpath and Ya Wang all claimed top spots in their respective graphics and advertising categories.
D&AD, which was founded in 1962, is the Design and Art Direction awards body which recognises outstanding work in the design and advertising industries.
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 was awarded the only Yellow Pencil in her category, which is given to individuals who exhibit ‘the most outstanding work that achieves true creative excellence’, for her project OFFSITE. It focused on a service that would safeguard construction workers’ careers by retraining them for the future ahead.
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.”
"Winning was a very nice way to finish up the year before graduating and I’m particularly proud that all of the UCLan winners this year were female as the world of design and advertising is still very male dominated."
Ya Wang was awarded a Wooden Pencil for her Dropbox project, which analysed the number of Chinese students who had decided to leave Asia in order to come and study in Preston. This category of Pencil is awarded to the ‘best in advertising and design for the year’, with winners also gaining a place in the prestigious D&AD annual.
Winners are handed a Graphite Pencil for ‘stand out work, beautifully executed with an original and inspiring idea at its core.’ Gail won this Pencil award for her project Routes, an interactive social campaign that highlights the difficulty in trying to find a home.
“Just to be shortlisted for the award 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 on deadline day,” Gail commented.
“Winning was a very nice way to finish up the year before graduating and I’m particularly proud that all of the UCLan winners this year were female as the world of design and advertising is still very male dominated.”
She added: “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 which are more in line with what is expected in the industry and through those contacts I have been able to arrange several work placements.”