School of Advertising and Graphic Design’s Simon Yip Yu Wen and Yiu Boon Sin have beaten thousands of contestants from around the world to bring home a D&AD Best of Year Award.

D&AD (Design and Art Direction) is a British educational charity established to promote excellence in design, and confers one of the most distinguished student design award in the world. Under the guidance of lecturer Marius Kasperas, The One Academy students were encouraged to compete against students from the all over the world for these coveted awards.

Simon Yip Yu Wen and Yiu Boon Sin from Class 2, Batch 95 of the School of Advertising and Graphic Design emerged as the winners for the category of “Publication Design”, thus were granted the right to use D&AD Student Award Best of Year kitemark. Their artworks were also featured at D&AD website’s Talent Portfolio for public browsing, including by prospecting employers.

The competition theme for the category of “Publication Design” was “D&AD Annual Report”. Sensing that bulky reports were environmental unfriendly, Simon and Boon Sin were determined to produce “Probably the last printed annual report”, which stemmed from their idea -- “This is not a book”. The One Academy sponsored them RM2,000 per person to attend the prize giving ceremony, as well as the New Blood festival and exhibition in London, held on June 27th and 28th, 2012.

This awesome award proves that The One Academy’s “Masters Train Masters” coaching approach is effective in producing bright talents. Participation in worldwide competitions and exhibitions expands one’s exposure beyond the classroom, and facilitates sharing of ideas among like-minded youngsters. This eye-opening experience in turn inspires students to think out of the box. It also propels students to identify one’s strength and weaknesses, and learn to be humble.

Both Simon and Boon Sin agreed that the secret to succeed lies in one’s passion for art. Paying close attention to all subjects in college, including the History of Art, would also assist the students in building a better foundation in art and design. “Self discipline is essential too, else one might easily be swayed by others and strayed from the principles,” Boon Sin elucidated.

As the leading art and design academy in Malaysia, The One Academy strives zealously to nurture enthusiastic talents into world-class design experts, Simon and Boon Sin’s recent triumph is the latest testimony to this.