Cherie and Toby walk away with international design competition commendations

Two creative students from the University of Northampton have received a coveted award for their brand campaign concepts for a leading drinks firm.

Graphic Communication undergraduates, Cherie Waugh and Toby Clarke, were both commended for their eye-catching submissions to the YCN Student Awards – a global design competition which celebrates the very best work from students and recent graduates around the world.

Both chose to tackle the live industry brief to create an outstanding brand campaign to drive sales for the premium range of Artisan Drinks within the best bars, hotels and restaurants within the UK and Australia.

Toby’s designs included a stunning poster advertising campaign which followed Artisan’s slogan, ‘Why blend in, when you can stand out’.

Toby also devised a Snapchat filter and an entire campaign, encouraging customers to wear special Artisan socks and share photos of them wearing them on social media.

Toby Clarke’s concept for the London Underground.

Toby’s poster campaign.

Toby’s poster campaign.

A mock up of one of Toby’s posters.

Toby Clarke receives his YCN award.

He said: “It is a great honour for my work to be commended in this year’s YCN awards, I thoroughly enjoyed the brief and the creative exploration from it. YCN Student Awards has always been to me a big award and to be commended for it is still unbelievable.”

Cherie, meanwhile, created a series of art-focused events running through the summer in creative hubs around London, all sponsored by The Artisan Drinks Company, called Artisan Live.

She then created a series of designs to promote the events, via posters, lanyards, drinks coasters, newspaper adverts and an app.

Cherie’s poster campaign.

Cherie’s drinks coasters.

Cherie’s lanyard designs.

Cherie Waugh.

Cherie said: “Being commended was a great feeling as I received praise from a reputable organisation on a project I was genuinely passionate and excited about.

“I put a lot of focus on this project, constantly adding to it when I had a new idea as I really believed that my concept would be great for the brand and their audience.

“I can’t wait to work on another YCN brief and challenge myself again to create work that I’m proud of. It feels amazing to be recognised for work you’re proud of.”

Trevor Brown, Programme Leader Graphic Communication, said: “It is great to see our Graphic Communication students commended at this year’s awards, as has also been the case in previous years.

“Both Toby and Cherie not only worked tremendously hard on their design solutions and offered much more than the client required, but also both clearly understood the audience’s needs and the brand’s values that they were designing for.

“Industry client-set design competitions necessitate a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the client’s sector as they are judged by the clients themselves. Our students’ entries demonstrated thorough knowledge of the briefs, with both designing exciting, innovative and bold campaigns that were professionally conceived and effective.

“Well done to both and let’s see what next year’s competition holds for us.”