Adobe announced the winners of the seventh annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards. The premier student design and film competition honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, and computer artists from the world's top educational institutions. Using the latest Adobe products, more than 2,500 students from 30 countries competed in the program.
"Recognizing student achievement in the creative arts is an important part of our ongoing commitment to design education," said Ann Lewnes, senior vice president of corporate marketing at Adobe. "The Design Achievement Awards gives students an opportunity to create engaging digital experiences that can be shared with peers and creative luminaries from around the world."

"The Design Achievement Awards allowed me to meet and learn from other students - incredibly talented and humble individuals - from around the world," said Amy Wang from the School of Visual Arts in New York and the 2006 winner in the Environment Graphics and Packaging category. "That experience made me a better designer and expanded the opportunities and resources available to me at a point when I was just beginning my career."

In a ceremony last night at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, students were recognized for their achievements in nine categories:

-- In the Animation category the winner was Axel Broetje of Braunschweig University of Art in Germany, and the finalists were Johnny Kelly of the Royal College of Art in London, and Sean Monahan of Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

-- In the Digital Illustration category the winner was Joerg Block of Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and the finalists were Aaron Kapor, Ricardo Beltran, Yuri Chung and Kevin Wong of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., and Cristian Zuzunaga and Peter Smith of the Royal College of Art.

-- In the Digital Photography category the winner was Sean Teegarden of the Art Center College of Design, and the finalists were Julia Bruns of Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and Michael Kai of Dortmund University of Applied Sciences in Germany.

-- In the Environmental Graphics and Packaging category the winner was Po-Yun Jack Wang of California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and the finalists were Julie Tinker of the School of Visual Arts in New York, and Gertrude Wong of George Brown College in Toronto.

-- In the Interactive and Web Design category the winner was Kyle Phillips of Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and the finalists were Carolin Horn of Massachusetts College of Art in Boston with Florian Jennett of the Academy of Art and Design Offenbach am Main in Germany, and William Ismael of the Art Center College of Design.

-- In the Live Action category the winner was Sean Dekkers of Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., and the finalists were Marcos Ceravolo of Vancouver Film School, and James Sutton of Coventry University's School of Art and Design in England.

-- In the Motion Graphics category the winner was the team of Benjamin Stephan and Lutz Vogel of Augsburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and the finalists were Jarratt Moody of Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga., and Justin Schrader of Rochester Institute of Technology.

-- In the Print Design Multi-Page category the winner was Aaron Kapor of the Art Center College of Design, and the finalists were Sung-Ho Bae of Keimyung University in South Korea, and Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer of the School of Design and Crafts at Goeteborg University in Sweden.

-- In the Print Design Single Page category the winner was Soo Jin An of Kookmin University in South Korea, and the finalists were Christian Eggenberger of the University of the Applied Sciences and Arts in Zurich, Switzerland, and Tyler Lang of Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla.

The winning entries can be viewed at http://www.adobe.com/education/adaa/winners. Winners were selected by a panel of industry judges based on their originality and effectiveness in communicating project objectives. The judges included: Gaby Brink from Templin Brink Design, Rafael Esquer from Alfalfa, Carole Guevin from Netdiver, Andrew Lin from Ignited Minds, Sande Scoredos from Sony Pictures Imageworks and Jan Wilker from karlssonwilker inc.

Finalists received a trip to San Francisco to participate in the awards event and studio tours. Category winners received a selection of Adobe products and a US$5,000 cash prize. Studio tours this year were offered by the following San Francisco companies: Cahan & Associates, Chronicle Books, EVB, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, GUNSHOP, Pentagram, Phoenix Editorial Designs, Tolleson Design and Vanderbyl Design. As part of the program, students also are offered internships and opportunities to showcase their work throughout the year.

Each year organizations sponsor the awards program by donating their time and services. This year's gold sponsors were Xerox Corporation and X-Rite; silver sponsors were The Creative Group, Original City Pictures and Saturday Night Magazine; and bronze sponsors were Final Draft, Inc., Mohawk Fine Papers and Toppan Printing Company.