Graphic fantasy design win for Korea bound student

Graphic fantasy design win for Korea bound student

Visual Communication Design student Daniel Voss, 19, joins a Wellington delegation to South Korea next week after winning a graphic design competition organised by Weta Workshop.

The company’s director Sir Richard Taylor will be part of the delegation visiting the city of Gwangmyeong, near Seoul, which is signing a memorandum of understanding with Wellington City Council toward a collaborative design relationship.

The South Korean city is also holding a Fantasy Week where Mr Voss’ graphic design, which features a futuristic alternate world, will be among a host of international artwork showcased throughout the festival.

Sir Richard, no stranger to creating alternate fantasy worlds, selected the prizewinning design from more than 20 submissions for the Concept4Korea competition.

Another visual communication design student with Massey’s College of Creative Arts, Tahiwi Hunt, was runner-up.

Describing both entries as “well executed,” Sir Richard said each met the criteria he was looking for including excellent technical ability, cinematic qualities, originality and great story telling with illustration.

Mr Voss, who is from Palmerston North, says his image was partly inspired by how we neglect nature on earth.

“For this alternate world that the astronaut lands on I wanted to imagine what a world would be like if nature was much more prominent and menacing. So that’s why there were many large vibrant plants, and it’s also why the insect creature is there. It’s almost like a world where the tables have turned - instead of removing nature it has had to be built around,” he says.

“The world of Pandora from Avatar was definitely a big inspiration for this.”

School of Design senior lecturer Tanya Marriott says both students’ success reflected well on the conceptual design component of the Bachelor of Design degree.

“Their success in this contest organised by Weta Workshop illustrates the close relationship the programme has with industry and how relevant it is as part of the Bachelor of Design.”

Electives within the illustration component of the degree such as physical and digital model making, story and narration and concept design had all contributed to the quality of both students’ final entries, Ms Marriott says.

Her colleague senior design tutor Matt Katz called Daniel’s win, in his second year at university, “ a testament to his hard work and constant practice in the craft of concept design and illustration.”

“It has been a pleasure to introduce him to illustrative concepts of storytelling and watch him evolve his designs and compositions to the high quality shown in his winning submission.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media