WORLD ILLUSTRATION AWARDS CATEGORY & OVERALL NEW TALENT WINNER (NEWS)
The World Illustration Awards is a global competition, hosted by the Association of Illustrators, in partnership with the Directory of Illustration. The annual awards receive thousands of entries across 10 categories, aligned to either ‘Professional’ or ‘New Talent’.
Graduating Illustrator, Kayla Salim, an international student from Indonesia who joined the course in second year (after a year studying in Paris), not only won the award for her category, ‘Publishing’, but she also took the top prize of ‘New Talent Overall Winner’.
In a final year brief on the Illustration course, students were challenged to produce an edition of 10 zines/comics, and an accompanying artefact, inspired by one of the factual, human-interest topics from across the globe (pre-selected by staff). Kayla chose Ama, a Japanese tradition dating back 2000 years. The word itself means “women of the ocean”. Ama divers search for pearls, seafood and more, descending 30 ft without oxygen tanks, relying only on their physical capability / strength. Kayla aligned her narrative to the prayer spoken before each dive.
The book was created by first drawing the line-work with pen and paper. Kayla then added tones digitally using Procreate, produced the book in Adobe InDesign, and then printed with two colours using a Risograph printer. To finish, the book was hand-bound with thread matching the inks. Kayla has since produced an animation of the story, using the same Risograph machine to produce each frame.
When reflecting on the brief, Kayla said:
“My favourite thing about this project is the technique of printing using the university Risograph printer. It was my first time learning how to use the machine and I found it to be quite hard and confusing at first, but definitely worth the effort once I got to understand how to use it better. The colours really pop out and are vibrant.”
Jenny Grigg, one of the WIA judges, said:
"Very sophisticated work for a student. Thoughtfully resolved and designed to a professional standard, including use of scale variation (dynamic change) across single pages, covers and double page spreads, extended/inventive use of two colours"
Kayla’s tutors, Mike Doney and Jo Breese, said:
“This brief was something we had been planning together for a number of years, and it finally fit into place for this graduating group of phenomenal illustration students. Kayla has consistently wowed us with her dedication, enthusiasm and diligence to make beautiful things, and with this particular outcome, we knew we had to submit it to the World Illustration Awards. It’s extremely exciting that the judges agreed, and we couldn’t be more proud. She’s an exceptionally hard-working, humble and talented illustrator, and this is only the start.”
Alongside Kayla, illustration student Luca Furniss was longlisted in the ‘Advertising’ for his animated film poster for Ghost In The Shell, and Lola Grainger was shortlisted for ‘Publishing’ for her zine about Bolivian skateboarding girl-gang, Imillaskate.
Kayla wins an award, a cash prize of £1000, a copy of the Directory of Illustration and a year-long AOI membership. In response to the winning announcement, Kayla said;
“That night, to celebrate, I went with my friends and sister to a haunted house”
See more of her award-winning talent
on the course Vimeo, Kayla’s website and her Instagram, @kaylaspalette.
︎ SEPTEMBER 2024 ︎SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY