Malaysian elements in design

Ng with his winning artwork and a mock cheque.

MALAYSIA took home the silver at the 2016 Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) World Championships, which was held at Orlando, Florida, in the United States recently.

Tunku Abdul Rahman University College student Ng Hwa Ee beat 230,000 competitors at the global competition that identifies and recognises the next generation of design professionals using Adobe design software.

He was awarded a scholarship worth US$2,500 (RM10,475), a medal, certificate, and an Adobe Creative Cloud software subscription.

This year’s theme was ‘Make Creativity Bloom’, and participants were given eight hours to create a digital marketing flyer for the International Child Art Foundation’s (ICAF) Sixth Arts Olympiad. They had to design the flyer using Adobe Creative Cloud, with software such as Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, and Adobe InDesign CC.

At the end of eight hours, the participants were judged on their creative and technical skills, keeping ICAF’s vision and message in mind.

“I had to immerse myself in ICAF’s vision and message. It was challenging to internalise all of that and develop (a design) in eight hours. However, I kept my cool and did the best I could. Winning second was definitely the icing on the cake,” said Ng.

In his winning artwork, Ng portrayed how children of the future are able to express themselves through arts, sports, and culture. Paying homage to his homeland, he used Malaysian elements such as the Rafflesia.

“I decided to try a different approach as the style I chose required a lot of illustration and drawing. I spent a lot of time drawing and redrawing using Adobe Creative Cloud, especially Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Illustrator CC,” he added.

This is the first year Malaysia has sent a representative to the competition. Ng was chosen from over 400 submissions at the national level championship, which was held from April to June 2016.

The Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) World Championships, held since 2012, is an annual event that tests students’ design skills using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.