Thomas Wong Ho-lam, a fourth-year Communication Design student of the School of Design, has been selected as the best graphic designer and ranked first in the overall category among thousands of participants at the Global Student Design Competition 2021 held by DesignRush, a B2B marketplace connecting brands with professional agencies. Thomas won the competition with his “Conceptual and Bilingual Penguin Classics” project, supervised by Mr Roberto Vilchis.

According to Thomas, Penguin Classics are timeless, but despite their reputation, young people in Hong Kong are losing their interest in reading English books. The idea of the project is to promote these books and motivate young people to start visiting bookstores more often. The result is a collection of different artworks that combine compelling imagery with English and Chinese messaging.

The judges commented that Thomas’s posters were playful, unique and immersive artworks that merged traditional with innovative design ideas. They also found that Thomas had used illustrations thoughtfully to support the written content.