Celebrating game-changing student work and storytelling with the Digital Edge Awards

Creativity gives everyone the opportunity to express themselves and share their stories, and it plays an important role in education, sparking inspiration for students and teachers alike. And it isn’t limited to creative subjects, cutting across academia in much the same way as digital literacy.

When students can combine their creativity with digital literacy, the result is powerful. Exploring a subject - no matter what that subject is – and using a medium they’re passionate about, creates an emotional investment that should be encouraged.

Creative & inspirational award entries

The Adobe Digital Edge Awards celebrate the inspirational ways in which university students across all academic disciplines in the UK bring their work to life using their creativity and digital literacy skills through the use of Adobe Creative Cloud.

The entries for the 2022 awards demonstrate unique traits of passion, human creativity, and ingenuity, showcasing the impact storytelling can have beyond the assessment brief. Our winning entries take us into a space of exploration and ideation, surprising and delighting us with both the stories they tell and the ways in which they are told, showing us just how important visualisation is as a tool to educate and influence.

Each student submission was created using Adobe Creative Cloud, and our thanks goes out to everyone who shared their stories. It’s work like this that inspires future-thinking educators and institutions, and encourages fellow students to unleash their innate creativity and develop their digital literacy skills.

Digital Edge 2022 winners revealed

Joining me on this year’s judging panel was founder of RateMyPlacement, Oliver Sidwell; YouTuber Max Fosh and freelancer and designer, Drucilla Burrell.

Students were in with the chance of winning two top prizes of £9,250 each, and an award for their CV. Six runners-up also received £1,000 each.

The judges felt that overall the entries strongly demonstrated emotional storytelling skills, bringing to life connections and memories from a given situation, an issue, or the world around us.

But there could only be two winners and our two top 2022 Digital Edge awards go to:

Brick Lane: An Immigration Story

By Layla C., a textile design student from the University of Edinburgh

Layla C. crafted a truly engaging story to showcase her creative process, and her inspiration came from her use of colour, family history, and street art from the iconic Brick Lane, steeped in culture. Our judges praised Layla for her passion and her views about the importance of storytelling and enhancing your project with authentic visualisations.

This is just one example of how creativity and digital literacy can be combined to develop identity when it comes to entrepreneurship and employability. Layla has used her skills to start developing her own identity and brand, which will help her in life after university and her future career.

Afterparty

By Kiran S. and team, design engineering students from Imperial College London

Kiran's group project focused on finding a sustainable design solution for FMCG in the events or travel industry. Students were challenged to submit a document with a maximum of 10 pages, giving them the opportunity to explore how to display complex ideas in a succinct and visual way.

Kiran developed the report layout and design, displaying his ideas through original infographics and supporting artwork. He shared that he is passionate about developing and improving his digital skills, with his team even producing an accompanying video. Kiran particularly enjoyed balancing digital literacy and aesthetics.

The runners up

We’d also like to give special recognition to two of our six brilliant runners-up, who each receive £1,000.

The Expedition

By Sarah B., an architecture student from the University of Huddersfield

Sarah drew from her family history to develop a final year project themed around social justice that’s filled with personal meaning, using the medium of poetry to tell her story from the heart and demonstrating her desire to educate people on Black history. Sarah was taught the basics of Adobe Creative Cloud at school but self-taught the rest, even learning Adobe Premiere Pro to develop two fantastic videos just a few weeks before her deadline.

It’s the evocative video that was key to the success of this entry, and is a great showcase into how students can transform their work into an engaging and deeply meaningful story, making true connections with their audience using their creativity and digital literacy skills.

Victorians Abroad

By Saahia M., an English student from King’s College London

At King’s College, Saahia is encouraged to produce more creative work than you’d expect from a traditional essay. For this module, centred on Victorian literature, students were encouraged to use a medium of their choice.

Saahia told us that this greatly empowers her creative thinking and allows her to engage on a more personal level with her projects, driving her learning and digital skills, and allowing her to better share ideas. Her lecturer is also using Saahia’s whimsical digital art and her engaging report as the illustration for next year’s module.

Congratulations to all our runners-up

Sarah, Saahia, and our four other runners-up brought their creative ideas to life and exemplified what self-expression is truly about. Each one tells an impactful story that makes us feel connected with the work and a part of each person’s journey.

Help your students tell their stories with Creative Cloud

Our mission to enable ‘Creativity for All’ means everyone everywhere, everywhere, is empowered to share their story with access to the tools needed to bring their inspirational ideas to life.

This is why we’re encouraging educators to incorporate digital literacy into their curriculum, helping to prepare students for their future workplaces, express their ideas in more creative ways, and improve the quality of their work.

Find out more about 2022’s award-winning work and the Digital Edge Awards here, and explore Adobe Creative Cloud.