ICAD students accompanied by their lecturers, Athirah Mohamed Zaini (second from right) and Alan Ong Tee Chuan (right) take home 4 out of 10 awards.

Design Zone’ by “Monster” which led them winning the consolation prize.

Another project titled ‘Nasi Lemak’ by “Monster” which won the first runner-up prize.

Team “Monster”. From left: Lai Jing Ni, Ivan Wong Chu Siong, Chong Kai Qi, and Kelvin.

Connect’ by “Project Code 005” took the consolation prize home.

The Art of Tribal Project’ by “This Is Non-Fiction” won the consolation prize.

Team “Project Code 005”. From left: Sharon Koh, Liew Yue Hao, Er Rou Xuan, Lai Ern Yu, Kok Hong Li

Team “This is Non-Fiction”. From left: Sharon Koh, Jong Zhuin Yong, Kenny Ling Ee Tak, Jong Ling Kiat

UCSI University students managed to win four different prizes in the grand finale of the “Fuyooooh! Creative Challenge” organised by KB Colour Image Sdn Bhd. The finale was held at Atria Shopping Gallery, Petaling Jaya on 19 December 2019 after going on for almost eight months from 2 May 2019 to 15 December 2019.

In the event, three teams from De Institute of Creative Arts and Design (ICAD) walked away with prizes. The first team, ‘Monster’, successfully walked away with cash prize of RM8,000 and RM1,500 for the first runner-up and consolation prize respectively with their projects entitled ‘Nasi Lemak’ and ‘Design Zone’.

Teams ‘Project Code 005’ and ‘This is Non-Fiction’ with their projects ‘Connect’ and ‘The Art of Tribal’ bagged the consolation prizes for their projects walking away with consolation prizes of RM1,500.

Chong Kai Qi, one of the team members for ‘Monster’ stated that winning two awards for two different projects was the best experience of her life as their hard work in creating ‘Nasi Lemak’ as well as ‘Design Zone’ were recognised by professionals.

“We were really pleased when we were chosen as a finalist for the competition by KB Colour Image. Not only did we manage to become one of the winners but we also gained experience working in a real design field by creating our piece of art,” she added.

“Our inspiration for ‘Nasi Lemak’ came to us upon seeing a white food truck without any design located nearby UCSI University as this is basically our go-to area as students. We decided that the food truck needed some of our creativity to make it look more interesting,” she highlighted.

Chong remarked that for their ‘Design Zone’ project, it was inspired by ‘Real Life at Work’, a project created by advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy in London.

“Based on that, we decided to transform a place we always pass by and neglect into a more useful and creative space, transforming a boring and monochromatic area into a cartoonist environment with pop art illustration,” she said.

“We decided to make use of the unspectacular storeroom in ICAD, a place surrounded by grey walls and messy equipment. We aimed to provide an innovative and creative environment to make people delighted while working, encouraging them to find out small surprises in their daily life,” she noted.

When asked how UCSI University, particularly ICAD has helped them, Chong mentioned the designing skills provided by the lecturers of ICAD and their hard work in ensuring the projects ran smoothly.

“Our group and maybe others as well have put in hard work for almost half a year to complete the projects. During the process, we faced a lot of conflicts on the design concept,” she said.

“Being the only group that worked on two projects at the same time, we did not have enough time - always working overnight to make sure all the things were submitted on time including our assignments. However, seeing the complete artwork being installed on the food truck and at the mall, we felt excited and assured that our hard work had paid off,” she added.

In the future, Chong who is currently a Master in Arts and Design student hoped that the experience that she has gained during the period of competition will help her in the real world.

Receiving the consolation prize at the grand finale, Kok Hong Li from “Project Code 005” said that their team was satisfied and happy upon winning the prize.

“What we like about this competition is that the experience of this design challenge is quite new and interesting apart from gaining new insights about printing and installation,” she remarked.

“There were times when things were quite rough as the competition period was quite long and clashed with our internship programmes,” Kok explained.

Kok who is pursuing the Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Graphic Design highlighted that their inspiration came from observing their surroundings where they noticed family members were becoming more and more disconnected as they scrolled through social media on their phones.

“We are very thankful to our faculty lecturers for their motivation and dedication in guiding us throughout the competition,”

“Moreover, UCSI has provided us with sufficient facilities and a conducive environment to develop ideas and knowledge,” Kok added.

When asked about their future aspirations, Kok stated that they hoped to apply all the knowledge and experience that they gained during the competition in the industry.

One of the lecturers from ICAD, Athirah Mohamed Zaini who accompanied the teams for the competition along with Digital Media head of department Alan Ong Tee Chuan stated that she always encourages the students to participate in many competitions as it is a good opportunity for them to gain experience.

“I believed that the “Fuyooooh” competition was uniquely designed for students to be involved in all aspects, from designing to the final execution where they were able to witness first-hand and be exposed to ground work such as factory blueprint settings and big-scale installation practice or approach in a shopping mall,” she said.

“In fact, I am sure that they learnt their weaknesses and strengths; to think critically; analyse problems; gain confidence in communication as well as team work. The lessons which they received from this competition are invaluable and is something that cannot be obtained in a classroom setting,” she added.

Explaining about the future prospect of the students, Athirah highlighted that the competition helped the students in many ways broadening their horizons, apart from gaining a lifelong learning skills which enhance their personal development, self-sustainability, and employability.

“Following the competition, I expect students to be better proactive individuals and I hope this competition will empower them to continuously acquire knowledge, values, skills and apply them with confidence, creativity and enjoyment,” she remarked.

The competition started off with the students presenting their creative concepts to convert an indoor or outdoor space area (with all existing fixtures included) into an imaginative fantasy or utopia. Following the presentation, participants with the best proposal were selected as the finalists.

All finalists will conduct a short presentation and will be assigned a Project Consultant (supervisor) from KB Colour Solution Team to help students throughout the whole project duration.

During the competition period, all finalists need to work as a team from finalising their design and artwork, conducting the site visit and discussions, developing detailed map plans, measuring dimensions of project space, as well as sending the design for factory printing or production process before doing the installation work.

At the final stage, all group engaged in marketing plans to promote their project and create a final video to gain as many ‘likes’ as possible from Facebook.

The objectives of the event organised was to bring out the creativity of students, develop the right set of quality skills, to show students the real-world collaboration of different skill sets of people as preparation to face the real world, gain practical experience through cooperation with businesses as well as networking and gaining the opportunity to build their work portfolio for future jobs.