AGDA Member Picks Up International Gold Award At Hong Kong International Poster Triennial

21st December, 2010

AGDA member and University of South Australia (UniSA) lecturer, David Blaiklock has topped a field of artists from 43 countries to take home not only one, but two awards in an international poster award in Hong Kong.

UniSA Illustration Design Course Coordinator in the School of Art, Architecture and Design, Blaiklock has returned this week from attending the prestigious Hong Kong International Poster Triennial award ceremony at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

He is the first Australian to be awarded a prize in the 12-year history of the Hong Kong International Poster Triennial and was one of only two Australians included in the final shortlist of 190 posters.

Blaiklock was awarded a Gold medal and a Bronze medal for two separate poster entries titled Wetlands and Green Shoots.

"Poster competitions are significant within visual communication design and associated industries as they foster innovation and dialogue in the development of the industry.

Success in a poster competition signifies peer recognition, and builds a designer's profile and standing within the international design community, so it's a great feeling to have won two awards in this competition," Blaiklock said.

"Posters are the perfect testing ground for a visual communication practitioner as they test the creative ability and clarity of a practitioner's visual language skills.

"These types of awards, particularly by significant cultural institutions like the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, are the only way designers can be recognised for our work," Blaiklock said.

The Hong Kong Triennial is a major international design event - the poster design equivalent to the Venice Biennale for contemporary art. It showcases exciting developments in poster design while also encouraging international cultural exchange and enriching the museum's collections.

Blaiklock's Wetlands poster depicts a stage within the water cycle that supports an abundance of life which he says is a critical stage within nature that we impact on and often take for granted. In the Bronze award winning Green Shoots poster, Blaiklock wanted to convey a sense of optimism and hope for the future of our planet while reflecting on current dire environmental circumstances.

There were five poster categories and 1775 artworks submitted to the competition. Blaiklock chose to enter two posters into the Act category which required designers to respond to the Act in the context of ‘freeing us from old confines to rediscover life with a whole new way of thinking'.

"The problem of conveying this idea as a poster was appealing to me because my work and teaching often touches on this approach to life," Blaiklock said.