Student wins national design competition

18 March 2014

Oaklands College Graphic Design student Ethan Bennett was recently announced as the winner of a national design competition set by TalkTalk, the UK-based consumer television and video on demand service.

The brief, an evolvement of their well-known X-Factor adverts, was to come up with a winning concept and campaign to engage families with TalkTalk. 

College lecturers integrated the competition into the Level 3 Graphic Design course to enable students to gain experience of a real life brief and if selected an opportunity to pitch to an agency. However, and although all students’ works were highly commended, it was Ethan’s idea “It’s time to TalkTalk” that shone through.

Ethan commented: “With each design project I start off by thinking about the longevity of the campaign; where will this go and how long will it keep people engaged. That’s why I steered clear of TV based ideas with this particular project. We all remember those X-Factor ads, and the brief’s aim was to find a new way to engage with families. If I was to come up with a winning idea I knew it had to move on from TV.

“We had to know our market, how to “talk” to them. So after I’d thought of the tagline I started experimenting with various ideas ranging from slightly risky ads to a Jeremy Kyle style spoof. It was only after I browsed TED talk that I discovered a video by William Ury which led me on to my main idea.

“My idea is to try and promote peace in the family and around the world. TalkTalk will partner with PeaceOneDay so that on this day they will offer free calls to encourage people to each other and therefore make peace. 

“I’d like to thank Oaklands, Richard and the Ideas Foundation for the opportunity. It’s been a great learning experience and has sparked even more focus and drive for me to make it in the industry.”

Richard Mitchell, Graphics Design Lecturer, commented: “Ethan is a very talented designer and to know that he was the only person to pitch his idea to the Head of Marketing at TalkTalk, the Business Director of CHI and President of Engine, Robin Wight, solo. Whereas all others were in groups just shows the confidence he has in his own ability.

“We aim to bring real life briefs to our students here at Oaklands. They’re now working on their next big project; a brief set by The Sun, and their concepts are that of industry standard.”