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ARU graduates scoop World Illustration Awards

Sustainability awareness posters help Tabitha to Science & Technology prize

A series of ingenious sustainability awareness posters has helped a recent Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) graduate win a major illustration prize.

Tabitha Wall, who graduated last month from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge after completing the BA (Hons) Illustration degree course, was one of two ARU winners at the recent World Illustration Awards 2021 organised by the Association of Illustrators, the professional body for illustration in the UK.

Tabitha collected the “Science & Technology New Talent” prize, while Dide Tengiz, a recent graduate from the MA in Children’s Book Illustration course at ARU, won the “Children's Publishing New Talent” award.  Both entries featured work undertaken as part of their ARU courses.  

Letchworth-based Tabitha, who has now secured a full-time job in the art department of a London film and advertising company, was inspired by the work of Stop Ecocide when she set out designing her series of sustainability posters, and was delighted that the environmental group gave her permission to enter the work in the World Illustration Awards 2021.

Tabitha explained:

“These posters came from a brief set on my Illustration degree. I stumbled across the work of the organisation Stop Ecocide at a protest and was really inspired by their work and the solutions-based approach they had to the climate crisis. Their campaign focuses on protecting ecosystems using international law, which I felt offered real hope. 

“For my posters, I focused on the emotive relationship between storytelling and the parental desire to protect.  The final pieces were all destroyed at the final stage of the production process to represent the destruction of each ecosystem.  For the melting ice image, I froze the book and then broke up the ice with a hammer. The oil scene involved dribbling the book with molasses. 

“As I was using natural materials, once photographed I was able to completely recycle the final pieces, and the physical work is now biodegrading on the compost heap! 

“I am absolutely delighted to have received a new talent WIA category award.  It means so much to me as a recent graduate and it is such a lovely way to start my career.” 

 

Dide Tengiz won the “Children's Publishing New Talent” prize for her work Mai, which she produced as her final project at ARU.  Meanwhile, Dide’s fellow MA Children’s Book Illustration graduates Daniela Sosa and Rosie Haine were both Highly Commended in the Alternative Publishing and Children’s Publishing categories respectively.