The University of Western Sydney's Bachelor of Design Program has taken out eight Australian Graphic Design Association awards, highlighting the outstanding success of the students and their teachers.
The Australian Graphic Design Association awards showcase the skills of design students across the country and celebrate Australia's best design teachers.
Student Jesse McIlwraith received an incredible four AGDA Awards for projects he completed over the past year at home and on exchange in London, including a response to a student brief set by Google, and the Art Direction and Branding of the music event Final Sessions.
"The process of answering new briefs, visualising new ideas, collaboration and seeing the finished product is always an enjoyable and rewarding challenge, and it's nice to be recognised for the work I've put in," says Jesse.
He says he was always drawing as a child and loved the creative subjects in school, and doing a degree in design seemed like a logical and practical next step.
"The Visual Communications course at UWS is so varied, it gives you a taste of everything from design to animation and film, illustration and photography, which gives you a good range of skills before deciding what you want to specialise in towards the end" he says.
During his last semester at UWS Mr McIlwraith began interning at one of Australia's leading design studios 'End of Work', where he is now working over the summer before heading to London to further his career and experience.
The AGDA awards are the latest in a string of honours for the Bachelor of Design program, based at the UWS Penrith campus, which has previously been awarded the Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching for the Rabbit Hole professional design studio.
Lecturer Samantha Edwards-Vandenhoek says the Rabbit Hole studio is unique as it gives students the chance to work on 'real-life' industry projects with external partners.
"By giving students the opportunity to work on real projects with real budgets and deadlines we not only improve their design skills but also expose them to what life as a designer is actually like," says Ms Vandenhoek.
"This approach has been vindicated by the amazing results at the AGDA awards this year. Congratulations to all the staff and students on this fantastic result."
