Coventry University students shortlisted for Penguin book cover design competition

Four students from Coventry School of Art and Design have made it on to the shortlist for the Penguin Design Award 2013.

The prestigious annual competition challenges art and design students from across the UK to come up with new book cover designs for classic adult and children’s titles. This year’s contest has attracted almost 1,400 submissions across both categories and the winners of each will be announced on Wednesday 19 June 2013.

Competition judges were extremely impressed by the high standard of work submitted but from the wide pool of entrants only 20 students from 11 institutions in total made the final shortlist.  The success of its students in this competition provides a further boost for Coventry University following its strong showing in the recently published Guardian University Guide, which saw it jump 13 places to 33rd position in the overall rankings with its art and design courses rated amongst the top 20 in the country (14th out of 83).

The four shortlisted entrants - all students on the BA Graphic Design course (one first year student and three in their final year) - have been nominated for the Puffin Children’s Prize, where the brief was to design a cover for Kenneth Grahame’s classic, The Wind in the Willows. With four finalists in this category, Coventry has more representatives than any other art college or university.

The students shortlisted for the Penguin Design Award 2013 are:

• Prince Arora, aged 22 from Cradley Heath, West Midlands (Year 3)
• Nabaa Baqir, aged 20 from Oman (Year 1)
• Paul Harris, aged 22 from Coventry (Year 3)
• Vicky Mills, aged 20 from Solihull (Year 3)

Dr Simon Bell, Course Director of the BA Graphic Design degree at Coventry School of Art and Design, said:

I’d like to congratulate our students on making the shortlist for this year’s Penguin Design Award. It’s a phenomenal achievement to make the final cut of this esteemed industry competition, which attracts a high volume of top quality design work by young artists from across the country.

To be recognised at this level is a tremendous boost for our students, particularly those in their third and final year who are about to embark on their design careers.

Their success also reflects well on Coventry School of Art and Design. We strive to equip our graduates with the necessary skills to produce work to the highest commercial standards and having four of our students selected for this year’s Penguin Design Award is testimony both to their individual talents and to the quality of training they have received here.

In addition to a cash prize of £1,000, the winner of the Puffin Children’s Prize will be invited to spend four weeks at the company’s design studio on placement, working closely with Puffin Art Director Anna Billson on live briefs. There are also cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd place.