TORONTO—Canadians fared well in the 12th annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards that took place during the RGD DesignThinkers conference in Toronto last week.

The event honoured students and educators in new and traditional media categories whose winning projects were selected from 41 finalists out of nearly 5,000 total entries from 70 countries, according to Adobe.

Canadians taking home honours included Sheridan College's Vanessi Li in the Browser Based Design category, while tops in the Packaging design category was Richelle Rogers of York University/Sheridan College.


Faculty awards were also handed out, with the Innovation in Motion and Video in Education award handed to Hector Herrera, Ontario College of Art and Design.

“In a globally competitive world, students who can express their ideas and solve problems in creative ways will be the most successful,” said Jon Perera, vice president of education, Adobe. “Recognizing top talent among next-generation designers is part of a broader commitment at Adobe to fostering creative thinking and expression in education.”

Adobe and Icograda (the world body for professional communication design) partnered for the fourth consecutive year to attract submissions from the Icograda Education Network, and select an international judging panel of experts in design, art and technology.

Winning student entries were selected based on originality, effectiveness in meeting the communication objective and skill in applying Adobe products. Faculty submissions were scored on educational innovation and the development of applications to better an overall educational experience.

DesignThinkers attendees also had the opportunity to pick their favourite entry in the Adobe awards, and the audience choice winner was Nada Seet for her print communications work.

Here are the other winners:

Animation: Ainslie Henderson,
Edinburgh College of Art, Great Britain

Application Development: Bram Monstrey,
Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen (HOWEST), Belgium

Game Design and Development: Mitchell Brien (group leader),
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Illustration: Yeni Kim,
Royal College of Art, Great Britain

Installation Design: James Coltman (group leader),
University of the Arts London, Great Britain

Live Action: Christopher Lavelle,
Sunderland University, Great Britain

Mobile Design: Kirsten Southwell,
North Carolina State University, United States

Motion Graphics: Michael Rigley,
California College of the Arts, United States

Non-Browser Based Design: Lee Soyoung (group leader),
Hongik University, Korea

Photography: Pablo Jimenez,
Academy Of Art University, United States

Print Communications: Jeff Han,
Art Center College of Design, United States

Faculty Awards:

Innovation in Interactive Media in Education: Anna Zyrianova,
St. Petersburg State Academy of Art and Design, Russia

Innovation in Traditional Media in Education: Kyuha Shim,
Rhode Island School of Design, United States

Individual student winners and the leader from each group winner received a U.S. $3,000 cash prize, winner’s certificate and a 3D trophy, plus roundtrip airfare/expenses to attend the DesignThinkers conference in Toronto.

Faculty individual and group winners received the same respective prize packages as well as a U.S. $3,000 educational grant for the faculty member’s institution.

All winning, finalist and honorable mention entries from 2012 can be viewed at the ADAA Gallery, along with entries from prior years.