Want to win $1000 bucks?
We’re chasing the best Design Graduates in the country.
Send us your best 12 pieces of work.
Get it to us by close of play Sunday December 19.

We’ll get back to the winner just after the 19th.

Send a PDF of your folio containing your best 12 pieces of work to ignite@trulydeeply.com.au by Sunday 05 Dec 2010. We’ll select the best three folios as finalists.

The finalists will be notified by 5pm Tuesday 07 Dec 2010. Life is expensive, but entry to IGNITE! is free.

Click here to download all the information you need to apply to the 2010 IGNITE! Design Graduate Awards

Here is a snap shot of his amazing work.

You can see more of his work over at his website, be sure to check it out.

Daniel Sammut

Billy Blue College of Design Sydney

Check out more of Daniel’s work over here. Congratulations Daniel!

See the rest of the finalists inside this post.

Emma Danckert

Monash University Melbourne

Great work Emma!

Samantha Ziino

RMIT Melbourne

You can see more of Sam’s work over here. Very nice stuff Sam!

Jess McGeachin

RMIT Melbourne

There is more of Jess’s work here. Congratulations Jess!

Thanks to Michael Tsalapataris from RMIT helping out with the poster.

2008 Winners

The winner of the 2008 awards was Hamish Smyth.
You can see what he has been up to over at his site here.

The 2 runners up were Will Morgan, visit him here, and Alexander Ward, check his site out here.

Congratulations and we wish you all the best.

Thanks to Michael Tsalapataris from RMIT for helping me with the balloon type.

HAMISH: I heard about Ignite through Uni we were sent an email in November, then we received the entry details from our course coordinator asking us to enter.

STORM: As a graduate designer what did you think of the Ignite idea?

HAMISH: It’s an excellent idea, I hadn’t heard of it before, it’s really good and very helpful to have things like this, when you’re a graduate to help you network and self promote as it is a pretty important part of being a designer. You can be a great designer but if you don’t know how to show your work and find people to link up with you’ll never get your work out there. So I think that is half the deal really.
So something like this is great to be able to get recognition.

STORM: Did you think you were a chance to win when you entered? No need to be shy about
this answer.

HAMISH: I thought I had a good shot, I was confident with my folio, so I won’t lie but I didn’t expect to win – you never really go in saying “I’ve got that”. You’ve got to have confidence in your work though.

STORM: What did you do when you found out you’d won?

HAMISH: Well I was at work, at Trampoline in their Head Office, and you called me, I was very surprised though. I think I made an announcement after the phone call.

STORM: Did everyone give you a round of applause?

HAMISH: They gave me a clap and a pat on the back!

STORM: What did you do with the cash prize money of $1000? It was good timing for you as it was just before Christmas. So did you buy presents?

HAMISH: Well it was paid in ten-dollar notes, which was great. I had to take it with me to work on the train carefully.

STORM: Were you afraid you would be mugged?

HAMISH: Slightly worried, then I took it to the bank at lunch and explained to the teller that he probably thought I had robbed a 7 Eleven with all of these $10 notes, so we had a bit of a laugh. I did spend some of it on myself – I got myself a t-shirt.

STORM: That’s all?

HAMISH: Then I put the rest on my credit card – I would like to say I saved it for a holiday but no.
It helped immensely it was great.

STORM: How would you describe your time working at Storm?

HAMISH: I have really enjoyed it, I have seen the progression of certain projects from start to mid way, so that’s been good. I really enjoyed working on the corporate ID’s. It’s the first studio I have worked in so I didn’t have many expectations and I have learnt alot about how a studio runs which is what I wanted to get out of this.

STORM: What has been the greatest benefit in working with Storm?

HAMISH: I’ve learnt alot about the branding side of things – I wouldn’t say it’s been one of my big interests in design in the past, so it’s opened my eyes up to branding and how in depth it actually is,
so it’s been great. I’ve learnt a lot about the way you guys decode brands – it’s been great to learn.

STORM: Is branding something you learn alot about at Uni?

HAMISH: No branding isn’t really talked about much, we do corporate ID”s but we would never do a brand strategy or something like that, so it has been really beneficial for me. The next logo I ever do,
I will be looking at competitors and taking what I’ve learnt here and appropriate it to my own processes. It’s been a great experience.

STORM: What was the highlight?

Hamish: The highlight involved Emma actually it was the 3AW call – I’ve got to say it was the funniest thing. I guess I should say something work related – it has been the things I have learnt which I have already touched on.

STORM: What was the most difficult thing?

HAMISH: I wouldn’t say difficult maybe more challenging would be adjusting to time constraints, short time frames so at Uni it’s a cushy atmosphere, you get a project and you have six weeks to do it,
where as here you get six hours to do a project.

STORM: Have you found that stressful or have you enjoyed that?

HAMISH: I’ve liked that, it’s good to have a deadline – it’s good to have some pressure, it brings out the best in some people, some people don’t like it – I enjoy it.

STORM: How have you handled the fame?

HAMISH: Ha. I can’t handle it – I get pulled up on the street.

STORM: Are girls chasing after you screaming?

HAMISH: That’s normal Em, I’m used to that. No I wish it were happening!

STORM: What was the most different thing to what you expected?

HAMISH: I hadn’t really heard of Storm Design and Brand DNA before the competition, so I was expecting a more traditional design studio without the branding side, so that was a good surprise.
To do that stuff as well, which I have enjoyed.

STORM: What advice would you give to punters entering this year’s awards?

HAMISH: Well I would say, just enter for starters; you’ve got to be in it to win it. Enter a good selection of your work, make sure your folio’s pretty sharp so you’ve got your pdf of your folio and just be confident with it, don’t over design it. Don’t crowd it either; submit a good and pretty broad selection. That is what I would recommend.

STORM: This is obviously the greatest thing that has ever happened to you what was the second?

HAMISH: Ha! Probably moving to Melbourne is probably the catalyst of what I am hoping is going to be
a great thing in my life. Trying to improve my direction so moving here was a big step – I didn’t know anyone so I came over to study basically just looking ahead for the future, and give myself the best opportunities I can.

STORM: Well you’re on your way and all the good things are happening for you, so we wish you all the best and thank you so much for coming into the studio. Thank you.

The Ignite! Design Graduate Awards are now open. Time to start polishing up that smile of yours…

For more further details contact us here.

Winner of the 2008 IGNITE! Award Hamish Smyth as picture here with Dave and Pete handing over the trophy and the loot.