In the ultra-competitive world of advertising, students of the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Graphic Design subject group have once again shown that their creativity and skills are among the best in South Africa. 

The students, who were also standout winners at the Loerie Awards earlier this year, dominated the student category of the Pendoring Advertising Awards which was held at the end of October.

This is an industry-respected advertising competition that celebrates South Africa’s indigenous languages. The competition gives substantial cash prizes, not only for the overall winners, but also for gold and silver winners in each category.

Representing the NWU with work they created last year, the students held the university’s name high. They took home five big awards, including the top prize in the overall category for students.

Play on words

Johanné Venter-Genis is the overall student winner for her project Mengelmoes. This is wordplay about her moles (moesies in Afrikaans) and the variety (mengelmoes) of skills she acquired as a design student at the NWU. She won a gold award for the same project at the Loeries earlier this year.

In addition to this prestigious award, Johanné received two more awards at the ceremony, held at the University of Johannesburg’s Arts and Culture theatre in Johannesburg.

She received a gold statuette for Mengelmoes in the student category for logos and identity programmes, as well as a silver statuette for a student-integrated campaign she and Clarise Benadé, also a Loerie winner, worked on together. Their campaign was for the Bokone Bophirima Craft and Design Institute and was titled “Better Creating Together”.

Another graduate, Izabel Barkhuizen, also won at the Pendorings. Izabel, who took home two awards and a craft certificate at the Loeries, received a Craft Gold statuette for her project Die Swart Boek Reeks: Land van Melk en Heuning (The Black Book Series: Land of Milk and Honey).

Laché Oosthuizen walked away with a silver statuette for her project Umuthi Kuhle - Good Medicine, in the student package design category.

Celebrate indigenous languages

Marina Herbst, subject chair for BA Graphic Design, says design excellence, refinement and original concepts are very important to them. “We take pride in the uniqueness, professionality and technical skill employed by students in their projects.”

She says the Pendoring Advertising Awards also gave the NWU’s graphic designers the opportunity to celebrate indigenous languages. “We entered projects in Afrikaans, Setswana and isiZulu and although the languages are not the mother tongue languages of all the students, we encouraged them to discover and incorporate these languages into their work.”

Marina says the awards are not only national recognition in the design and advertising industries for the students but also tangible awards for their talent, commitment and hard work.

	The Mengelmoes project - Johanné Venter-Genis says winning in the overall student category was a big surprise for her. “I expected that the NWU would take home a few prizes but didn’t think it would be me.”  As a student, she used to dream about winning such awards. “Now it is finally a reality.”
	The Better Creating Together project. Clarise Benadé.
	Izabel Barkhuizen. Die Swart Boek Reeks: Land van Melk en Heuning (The Black Book Series: Land of Milk and Honey).
	Laché Oosthuizen. Umuthi Kuhle – Good Medicine project.