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Loughborough student nominated for design industry award

Posted on 02/06/2009

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Loughborough student nominated for design industry award

Loughborough University Illustration student Simon Yewdall has been nominated for one of the design and advertising industries’ most prestigious prizes – the D&AD Student Awards.

The awards showcase the best emerging creative talent from hundreds of colleges and universities around the globe and attract thousands of entries each year. Only around a hundred of those have been nominated for an award this year. The winners, who each receive a coveted Yellow Pencil Award, will be announced on 2 July at a ceremony in London.

Simon (24), who originates from Uppingham, Rutland, submitted a series of five images in the Photography category of the awards. His pictures were taken for the charity Photovoice, which encourages photography as a means of expression for those people who are often little heard in today’s society.

“The D&AD competition brief asked for a series of photographs that challenged perceptions of wealth and poverty,” explains Simon. “I wanted to show five individuals whose current lives don’t necessarily reflect their education or culturally-rich background, to try and break down the stereotypes of unemployed people or those in lower-paid employment in contemporary Britain. In particular, I focused on migrant workers, individuals forced out of retirement and the unemployed.”

Simon’s photographs show lone chairs in seemingly incongruous environments. The chairs represent the people’s past lives, in contrast to the backdrop that depicts their current place of work; this distinction illustrates that material wealth and experiences of poverty can sometimes bear little relation to the breadth of a person’s knowledge and instead can relate more to a lack of opportunity.

Of his nomination Simon said: “It was fantastic to learn that I had been shortlisted for a D&AD Award. I feel privileged and very excited to be going to the award ceremony and to be able to meet some of the industry’s best.”

Winning an award can kick start a career in design and advertising. Laura Woodroffe, D&AD Director of Education and Professional Development, said: “For over 30 years, the D&AD Student Yellow Pencil has been one of the toughest student awards to win and one of the best first steps to a career in advertising and design. Our standards couldn’t remain so high without the industry staying closely involved to help encourage the next generation.”

This is potentially the second major award for Simon this year. Back in January, his ‘Yes We Can’ artwork representing the election of Barack Obama won a national competition run by The Sunday Times’ Style magazine in association with the Ford motor company.

“These competitions are great opportunities, and I feel very lucky and very grateful that LUSAD makes such an effort in encouraging us to enter them,” said Simon.