Erica Ciuffreda and Alice Siniscalchi were chosen as the winners for the ‘Moving Pictures’ category for their animation exploring the differences between the virtual world and real life.
The Royal Society of Arts Student Design Awards is a global competition that challenges students to apply their skills and creativity to tackle today’s most pressing social and environmental issues, and encourages them to unlock new ways to meet the needs of people and the planet.
Participants choose to respond to a brief, which are wide-ranging and developed in collaboration with industry partners and sponsors. This year there were nine project briefs on offer.
Westminster students Erica, a Graphic Communication Design BA Honours student, and Alice, an Animation BA Honours student, chose to engage in a cross-course collaboration effort in response to the brief ‘Act Together’. The aim was to conceive and produce an animation to accompany one of the two selected audio files that would clarify, energise and illuminate the content.
The students’ winning project, titled ‘Beyond Divisions’, explores the differences between the virtual world and real life to highlight the importance of building meaningful relationships. By using a portrait phone size as the animation format, audiences are called to focus on the opposing themes of connection and isolation.
Paper planes are one of the key elements in the animation and were used as a visual metaphor for interconnectedness, representing not only how travelling connects people from all over the world, but also reminding the audience of childhood games. The audio by Vivek Murthy also highlights the importance of relationship-building and the need to unite and work together.
Speaking about the project and her collaboration with Alice, Erica said: “Working on this project challenged us to produce our best work, allowing us to grow as creatives as well individuals. Coming from two different backgrounds, animation and graphic design, this project also gave us an opportunity we didn’t have before to collaborate and learn from each other. We kept a very clear and regular communication and encouraged each other throughout the whole process. I am sure that creating a supportive and communicative environment had a positive influence on how the animation turned out and it also transpired during the interview process.
“Receiving an RSA Award was an honour and a big reward for all our hard work. Taking part in the ceremony was also an amazing opportunity to meet the members of the RSA in person, as well as the other winners. Overall, it was an exciting and inspiring experience that will stay with us forever."
Colin Bailey, Principal Lecturer in the Westminster School of Media and Communications, added: “Alice and Erica have created an animation that enriches the content and provides engaging visual insights that create deeper understanding of the audio content – a very successful collaborative outcome that demonstrates high-level thinking in support of strong visual ideas and technical realisation.”
Watch Erica and Alice’s animation on the RSA Design YouTube channel.
Find out more about Art, Design and Visual Culture courses at the University of Westminster.
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