Media Design School students dominate the innovation category in Ad Stars 2018 shortlist

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Screen Shot 2018-07-10 at 9.56.30 am.jpgThe shortlist for the Ad Stars non-professional category has been released and out of 17 finalists in the innovation category, AdSchool students have scored eight (well ahead of both the New York School of Visual Arts and Miami AdSchool).

Says Kate Humphries, programme director, MDS: “NZ students have totally owned the Innovation category this year and they’ve done it across a wide range of global brands by really exploring how those brands can innovatively use new and emerging technology.

“Congratulations to all our finalists including Hannah Stokes and Will Budgett for their Body Shop End. It idea which uses nail polish to diagnose endometriosis (a disease that can take an average of 10-15 years to be accurately detected); George Stafford and Tyson Kinraid for Oculus Teleoperated Mine Detonators, which allow gamers who love blow stuff up, to blow up landmines in real time; Guy Trengrove & Emi Liu, for an idea that marries up one of China’s biggest resources, bamboo, with its biggest ecommerce brand, Alibaba (whose online sales and profits surpass Walmart, Amazon and eBay combined) to create the  Alibaba 100% Counterfeit range of single use plastics;  Clementina de Ruiter and Achsha Finny for Apple Leaf, which adds leaf technology to the ubiquitous Apple logo, so devices can start operating like real leaves by absorbing CO2; Lily Macintosh and Matt Aitken’s for Vero Boat Doctor which uses voice diagnosis technology to diagnose boat engine problems well before they end up stranded out at sea;  Hannah Stokes and Will Budgett for Body Form Absorbshun, an idea which uses Bodyform products online to absorb female shaming;  David Amann and Philip Meki’s Huawei trains, which uses triboelectric nanogenerators to create self-charging trains; and Rebecca Sharp and Madi Norgrove’s Libra Cryptocurrency, previously shortlisted for Future Lions, which turns Libra products into a multi-token, female cryptocurrency, so that female investors can helping out women in period poverty.  

“As well as exploring creative technology platforms we also believe in pointing the students firmly towards print to ensure they learn the core craft disciplines of words and visuals, and how to sustain an idea across multiple executions. So we were really pleased to also see three of our teams reach the finalist stage in the print category at Ad Stars this year – so big congratulations to Zach Hall and Clementina de Ruiter for their Gorilla Doctors campaign: Doctor or poacher?; Tyson Kinraid and Guy Trengrove, for their Gorilla Doctor’s campaign, Medical Slaughter, and lastly Jake Williams and Lily Macintosh for DIY First Aid  for St. John’s, a print campaign that encourage DIY enthusiasts to keep a first aid kit in their homes, so they can DIY themselves when the need arises, as it invariably does when you’re a keen exponent of the hammer, the nail and the saw.”

VIEW THE FULL LIST OF FINALISTS – Finalists_Non Professional_AD STARS 2018.pdf

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