Advertising design graduate wins London award

An Otago advertising graduate says rebellious student culture was behind her edgy, award-winning redesign of classic cartoon character Beryl the Peril - the female equivalent of Dennis the Menace.

Aïcha Wijland graduated last year with a graduate diploma in advertising from the University of Otago, and a bachelor in fine art from the Dunedin School of Art.

University of Otago and Dunedin School of Art graduate Aicha Wijland has received a prestigious Yellow Pencil Award through the D&AD Awards for her design work for Beano. Photo: Larry J Photography
University of Otago and Dunedin School of Art graduate Aïcha Wijland has received a prestigious Yellow Pencil Award through the D&AD Awards for her design work for Beano. Photo: Larry J Photography

She has won a prestigious Yellow Pencil award in the 2018 Design and Art Direction Awards (D&AD), in the New Blood category for emerging writers and designers.

Thousands of people from around the world enter the London-based awards every year. Ms Wijland is the first New Zealander to win a top prize.

Ms Wijland took on a brief from Beano to redesign an animated version of Beryl, a character who first appeared in 1953.

The cartoon was created by David Law, the creator of ``Dennis the Menace''.

``Beryl spoke to me as she's a very strong-willed, fearless character, a great role model for young girls,'' Ms Wijland said.

She enjoyed studying at Otago and felt it had inspired her design.

``It's likely that some of my underlying inspiration for Beryl's rebelliousness came out of the student culture at Otago, especially around the music scene.''

She went through Brandbach, the university's advertising specialisation programme, run by her father, Otago Business School senior lecturer Dr Roel Wijland, and next month was starting a job as art director at Melbourne advertising agency CHE Proximity.

Aïcha Wijland's take on classic cartoon character Beryl the Peril, who first appeared in the 1950s. Photo: Aïcha Wijland
Aïcha Wijland's take on classic cartoon character Beryl the Peril, who first appeared in the 1950s. Photo: Aïcha Wijland

elena.mcphee@odt.co.nz

 

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