POPAI Awards Student Designers

To show case the talent of young designers and encourage them to become involved in Marketing at Retail, POPAI Australia & New Zealand together with the POPAI Sustainability Committee launched the Student Sustainability Design Awards earlier this year.

The initiative is aimed at lifting awareness of sustainable materials in the design of point of purchase displays, as well as allowing tertiary students to work on a commercial brief prepared by one of Australia’s largest brands.

This year, students submitted designs and case studies to a brief set by Nestle Australia for Nescafe Gold. With a judging panel composed of brand marketers, industry designers and producers of POP, each design was assessed against its use of sustainable materials, retail presence & brand equity and conceptual strategy.

The winner was announced at RMIT University with Mr Tom Harris, CEO, POPAI Australia & New Zealand congratulating Melanie Martin, a Second Year Visual Merchandising student on her successful design.

Three of Australia’s leading POP producers: Active Display Group, Retail Solutions and SPOS sponsored the prize, a eight week scholarship offering work experience with one of the companies as a Junior Graphic Designer.

Melanie has elected to work with the Melbourne based Active Display Group. This position will allow her to get hands-on, client driven creative experience of the retail marketing sector. She will work with experienced design professionals on ‘real’ client briefs.

Peter Roff-Smith, Design Manager for Active Display Group said the contest was a ‘great initiative from POPAI Australia & New Zealand and Nestle and he was pleased to see the prize go to such a deserving winner’.

The Student Sustainability Design Awards Contest will be run on an annual basis by POPAI Australia & New Zealand and will be open in 2009 to students enrolled in University, TAFE or Tertiary Colleges in Australia. For more information, contact Karen Spear at POPAI Australia & New Zealand on 02 9984 9322 or email karens@popai.com.au