This is the second year running in which Vega students have won at the annual D&AD Awards, which are considered a major event in the international world of design and advertising.

In 2013 a Vega student won Best in Year and had his work published in the international D&AD Annual, while in 2012 a student won a Yellow Pencil and was also published in the annual. Previous to this, a student was nominated in the Craft – Illustration category and three others were published in the D&AD annual in 2010.

Vega enters its students’ work into the Awards to be judged against other creative, design and advertising students’ work from around the globe. This year’s Awards ceremony and associated creative workshop, facilitated by world renowned international creative directors, will take place in London in July. 


At the ceremony the students will find out which Pencil they have been awarded from among Wood (shortlist of the best work submitted for each brief), Graphite (work that rises above Wood Pencil standard), Yellow (work that is outstanding, excelling across all judging criteria), White (work that uses the power of creativity to do good in the world) and Black (best of the best, the ultimate award for new creatives).

The team comprises of four students in their third year of a Creative Brand Communications degree. Kate-Lyn Meistre, Kathryn Henning and Mikola Hill are majoring in visual communications, while Jessica van der Berg has chosen copywriting as her primary discipline.

The students received the D&AD brief in March this year and opted to work on the Pantone brand. They pooled their creativity and skills to develop a campaign around the notions that bringing colour and light to an area of Johannesburg would benefit the communities who live there. Using the two issues of a run-down suburb and load shedding as their platform, the students came up with a solution that involved colour. The Pantone swatches they chose provided a lively look and feel to the area, and the glow-in-the-dark aspect worked best during load shedding.

“We were thrilled to hear that we’d won a Yellow Pencil Award for our integrated campaign, Making Yeoville Better in the Dark, by developing the area through glow-in-the-dark colour and bringing back the vibe that Yeoville was once known for,” explains Henning. “Winning this amazing award will open doors for our careers as young women in South Africa and allow us to reach new heights with our creative ideas, changing lives and making the world a better place through innovative design and advertising.”

Dr Carla Enslin, co-founder of Vega, says that this global recognition of the calibre of Vega students once again confirms that the school is succeeding in helping students unearth their true potential, and in turn shaping and building some of South Africa’s leading young minds to make a lasting impact on the industry in the future.

The students are now permitted to use the Pencil icon on their future work, proving to the world and prospective clients that their talent has been endorsed by global industry leaders.

For more information on the Vega School of Brand Leadership, visit www.vegaschool.com. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.