Two students from Kingston have beaten more than 650 entrants to become finalists in a prestigious book illustration competition being judged by Quentin Blake and other renowned illustrators.

Chungwoon Choi, 28, from Korea, and Joseph Melhuish have just finished their first year studying Illustration and Animation at the University. They are among just six illustrators to be shortlisted for the first Book Illustration Competition – a collaboration between the House of Illustration and publisher The Folio Society.

The competition, entitled ‘Get inside The Outsider’, invited entrants to produce a series of illustrations for a new edition of The Outsider by Albert Camus. The six shortlisted artists were selected by a judging panel that includes Quentin Blake, writer and actor Simon Callow and award-winning illustrator Laura Carlin, who has just won the V&A Illustration Award for Best Illustrated Book.

Geoffrey Grandfield, Field Leader in the School of Communication Design, said: “We are immensely pleased that the work of two of our students has been shortlisted. Both students looked at the underlying themes and developed very different, but very convincing interpretations that share a strong sense of design. Both use drawing and painting to evoke a sense of location and time; Chungwoon also used Photoshop to explore his imagery. The differences in outcome really demonstrate the diversity that we emphasise on the course and the value that we place in original visual language.”

Chungwoon, who won illustration competitions in Korea before relocating to the UK, said he tried to incorporate some of the book’s themes in his pictures: “I was trying to capture Meursault’s emotionless, inhuman way of seeing the world. I also wanted to express the weather and atmosphere, which somehow bring on the terrible incident in the book, and also because you can almost feel the heat of Algerian sun while you are reading. He continued: “Since it was my first year studying at university in the UK, being shortlisted is a great encouragement. At the same time though, now I put more pressure on myself, but in an enjoyable way. It really helps me clobber my big furious laziness!”

The winner, to be announced on 4 July, will receive £6,500 and a commission to illustrate a new Folio Society edition of The Outsider.

Two Kingston students are among the winners of the Royal Society of Arts’ 2011 Student Design Award. Stuart Kench and Helen Parry won the ‘Giving and Getting’ category, for design that invokes need and inspires generosity, with their innovative system for donating to charity, Donate at the Gate. The system allows Oyster card users to tap in to make a donation as they head through turnstiles at stations.

Stuart said: “We discovered that members of the public felt that charity workers collecting money were intrusive, and many admitted to avoiding them. We saw the opportunity of using TFL’s gate systems as a way to incorporate donation into commuters’ daily lives.”

The system works by adding an extra 1p to an underground user’s journey when they tap onto the Donate at the Gate entry point. Additionally, the philanthropist on the move can use an online tracker to see a running total of donations and a map of the stations they have donated at.

Senior Lecturer of Graphic Design, Marion Morrison, said: “Helen and Stuart’s thinking behind this idea is both profound and effective. Most people would agree we could all donate more to charity, but have little time to pause and drop our coins into the collection tub. This is the work we strive for on the course: meaningful, memorable and idea-oriented.”

The design duo won a 12-week placement at London-based design agency Springetts, a company with a focus on charitable innovation.

The students have big plans for their idea: “Making our idea a reality could change the way people are involved with charitable donations. The system could be adapted to be used all over the world”.

Currently the students are searching for funding to develop the concept.

The spate of natural catastrophes that has dominated the headlines so far this year has prompted Kingston University students to come up with creative new ways to assist both victims and aid workers in disaster zones. Their solutions, most of which were developed in response to a brief set by the magazine Creative Review, range from simple ideas – such as cardboard boxes that transform into charts of missing people and  magnetic letters for the sides of aid vehicles – to a scheme that exploits the potential of the internet and social networking.

The students began developing their ideas in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese tsunami in March. Graphic designer Ben Lambert, 22, from Brighton, decided to bring together as much information as possible in one place so he set up a website which incorporated news feeds, amateur webcasts and threads on social networking sites.

At its peak, the site, Japan Live, was getting more than 10,000 visits a day and nearly 50,000 in its first week. It streamed news broadcasts from Japanese television along with an English translation provided by a Tokyo-based blogger.

“A lot of visitors were spending half an hour or longer on the site, which suggests it had become their main source of information about the disaster,” said Ben. “We were even sometimes putting the news online ahead of the professional broadcasters.

“On one occasion the authorities evacuated the Fukushima nuclear plant and then, an hour later, allowed workers back in. Our site was saying that they had come back in two hours before the BBC had even reported the evacuation.”

At this stage fellow graphic design student Jack Llewellyn, 23, from Stockport, got involved. He and Ben decided to turn Japan Live into a means of actively helping people caught up in the aftermath of the tsunami and those trying to get aid to them. They incorporated up-to-date weather forecasts, satellite photographs and Geiger counter readings from the affected region. A social stream was set up that allowed aid workers to exchange ideas and information that they had gathered on the ground.

“The idea was to create an information sharing network that aims to bring together people with useful skills worldwide to create the most effective information resource possible,” he said. “The website allows contributors to add content, from Twitter feeds up to custom-designed maps, or specialist applications.”

In the event of another natural disaster, users can swiftly set up a new microsite so that news can be quickly collated in one place. “Aid agencies told us that, in some parts of the world, official news sources are mistrusted by the authorities,” Jack said. “The great thing about this site is that it’s entirely moderated by the members themselves.”

The site also gives visitors the chance to vote on the usefulness of information that’s posted. The most relevant information is then compressed so it can be sent in text message form to aid workers. “We spoke to someone at one of the big aid agencies and they said that portability was essential – they couldn’t cart big laptops around,” Jack said.

With this in mind, the pair have also designed a set of cardboard boxes. These would be used to transport aid to disaster regions but, once the food and medical supplies have been taken out, they could be used as signs to direct people to shelters or medical facilities or as charts where people could list the names of missing friends or relatives – and add photographs.

Thirza Prentice and Sara Weavers also addressed the issue of signage by creating a set of magnetic letters that could be attached to the side of aid vehicles. They also designed a set of helium filled balloons to indicate where food and medicines are being distributed. The balloons would be fitted with solar-powered lights so they would remain visible at night.

“In everything we do at Kingston, we try to emphasise the social responsibility of the designer,” senior lecturer in graphic design Mike Bond said. “Ben and Jack have taken that idea and expanded it into something that could be applied to any disaster scenario.”

A new website has been set up by the graduating year of BA (Hons) Graphic Design and BA (Hons) Graphic Design and Photography. Step Trip Step, has information of the London shows, RSA nominations and D&AD nominations. To find out more, please visit

http://www.steptripstep.co.uk/