From left to right: Chris Reynolds, Katie Leedham, Sarah Adams, Leanne Leitch, Ryan Benniston, Lee Day

Four winning finalists came over to the RJDA studio to receive their certificates and ‘sauce bottle’ trophy’s on Friday 21st May and Ryan took centre stage as the overall winner of RJDA’s FIRST EVER Creative Sauce Competition. to receive his 21 inch Mac, the ultimate prize for a graphic design student!

The winning students are all in their second year at Derby University studying Graphic Design and were thrilled to be with us as well as a little overwhelmed by their own success!

The students had a tour of the busy print and production facilities we have on site and around our design studio first off, followed by a session with the Company Director Lee Day and Studio Manager Chris Reynolds for a portfiolio appraisal.

This was a fabulous opportunity for students to show their work to professionals who have worked in the industry for years, and to use their knowledge to help  understand what it is future employers will be looking for in a portfolio and how best to present their work.

We also gave each student a dedicated invaluable weeks work placement in our design studio over the summer so as they can get a feel for what its like working on live briefs for clients and to deadlines, an opportunity which will stand them in good stead for the future.

Ryan Benniston receiving his brand new iMac

“All four of the winners entries were very strong and could have worked for the charity Brake as a campaign piece in their own right. The reason that Ryan’s entry had the edge was the fact that he had taken the brief and thought about it that little bit deeper. It was graphically well put together, it was hard hitting, neat and strong visually with an excellent use of typography.  They were all very good visually, but Ryans was that bit stronger. He was a deserved winner”

All in all it was a relaxed, informative and fun afternoon for all of us at RJDA as much as for the winners of the very first Creative Sauce Competition.

The start of February signals the launch of Creative Sauce, an exciting new design competition bringing together RJDA’s creative professionals with road safety charity Brake and the burgeoning talent from the regions 4 main universities.

Creative Sauce is a vision for student opportunities and an opportunity for RJDA’s graduates to give something back to their university roots according to Studio Manager Chris Reynolds who will be appraising portfolios of the competitions 5 best entrants.

Encouraged by its already successful graduate recruitment program Chris envisages Creative Sauce as a fantastic opportunity for students to showcase their design potential to one of the East Midlands fastest growing and most successful agencies.

This years inaugural competition will see RJDA team up Road Safety Charity Brake to deliver a brief for “WATCH OUT THERE’S A KID ABOUT! A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR CHILD ROAD SAFETY.”

Check out all the entries on our new website www.mycreativesauce.co.uk to see who is in the running to win the 21″ Imac first prize and a host of runner up prizes.

RJDA are pleased to announce their continued association with Derby University by adding to their graduate intake for the fourth successive year.

This month welcomes the most recent arrival to RJDA’s burgeoning creative team – Darren Barrett, a 2:1 BA Honours Graphic design graduate with a strong pedigree and portfolio to match.

Darren's winning YCN artwork

If his recent YCN yearbook commendation is anything to go by, next year promises to be big year for Darren, a prediction matched by course tutor Tracey Allanson-Smith. “Darren can feel particularly proud of his academic achievements to date, the highlight being chosen by the Young Creative Network for his Orange mobile concepts. Given the right opportunity I am sure Darren will convert his obvious potential into creative talent within a studio environment”

According to studio manager Chris Reynolds it certainly wasn’t a difficult decision in the making – ‘Darren has an outstanding CV and portfolio and will be hoping to emulate the success of our previously talented Derby University graduates Matt Underwood, Ross Ballinger and Andy Gilmore by forging a promising career for themselves within the RJDA studio’

See below examples of other work our Derby graduates completed at university…

Matt Underwood - commissioned work for Orange whilst at Derby University

Andy Gilmore's YCN winning work