Illustration and Animation BA(Hons): Student achievements

Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2010

Napatsawan Chirayukool, originally from Bangkok in Thailand, won one of 10 Adobe Design Achievement Awards for her heart-warming two-minute animation of the "little pieces of happiness" that make a person's day:

More than 20,000 students from 152 different countries entered the awards, which honour the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from the world's top higher education institutions.

3x3 international student illustration awards 2010

Our Illustration and Animation BA(Hons) had an amazing sweep of gold and silver medals and a distinguished merit in the international student illustration awards organised by New York company 3x3. Getting into the 3x3 Student Show is not easy but once in you are among the best of the next generation of illustrators. Alexandra Dommett topped the list with the Best in Show prize and was joined by Helen Davies with a silver and Rachel Lillie with a distinguished merit. As an international competition, this shows Kingston University's Illustration and Animation BA(Hons) students are amongst the best in the world.

Transport for London competition

Along with her 3x3 prize, Rachel Lillie won the joint Transport for London and Association of Illustrators illustration competition and exhibition on cycling. Rachel produced the illustration 'Good for you, green for London' in response to the brief which was to design an illustration that would promote the environmental, health and recreational benefits of cycling in London. As part of her prize, Rachel's work will be used as a poster at tube stations around London and will be exhibited at the Cycling in London exhibition which is being held at the London Transport in Covent Garden.

D&AD award

As well as 3x3, a D&AD award was on its way for graduate Chryso Haralambous. She won a New Blood for a poster she produced for the 1970 film 'Love Story'. "A panel of industry judges tours more than 80 UK and international college stands and selects the best representative work; they only award around 20 'New Bloods' each year out of thousands of pieces of work so this is a real coup for Chryso," course director Geoffrey Grandfield said.

The Times travel blog

George Butler, a former Kingston University illustration student, teamed up with The Times to publish his illustrated travel blog as he travelled the 8,500km overland from London to Libreville, the capital of Gabon, over the course of six months. George, who graduated in 2007, was initially introduced to reportage illustration on a Kingston University trip to Manhattan where he "learnt how drawing can take you inside a situation and in a community in a way that photography, on the whole, does not".

Illustration graduates win a BAFTA

A series of four dramatic short films entitled 'See Something, Say Something', animated by two recent Kingston University graduates, won a BAFTA at the 2010 British Academy Children's Awards ceremony:

Ben Wright and Will Milton, who met on their first day at University, designed the overall aesthetic, including characters, backgrounds and animation for the films while working at design agency Bold Creative. Bold, which specialises in social projects, interviewed four children about their experiences of bullying, and their deeply moving, brutally-honest stories were then animated by Kingston graduates Ben and Will.

The films took two months to make, and were screened on the children's TV channel Nickleodeon as part of an anti-bullying awareness week. They use a combination of hand-drawn and computer animation.