From Rio Olympics to the IT Olympics, Malaysia has the world watching in awe, a student from Tunku Abdul Rahman University, Ng Hwa Ee, recently won second prize or silver medal at the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) World Championships, held in Orlando, Florida on 7 August 2016, where his designs got second place. The championship results announced on 16 August 2016 saw Ng, clinched the silver medal, beating 230,000 competitors from all over the world. He was awarded a scholarship worth USD $2,500, a medal of achievement and certificate of recognition, together with an Adobe Creative Cloud software subscription.

The Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) World Championships, held since 2012, is an annual event that tests students’ design skills using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Top students from all over the world are invited to represent their respective countries at the World Championships. This is the first year Malaysia has sent a representative to the competition, chosen from over 400 submissions at the national level championship held from April to June 2016.

This year, under the Championship’s theme ‘Make Creativity Bloom’, participants were given 8 hours to create a digital marketing flyer for the International Child Art Foundation’s (ICAF) 6^th Arts Olympiad using Adobe Creative Cloud tools such as Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, and Adobe InDesign CC. Judged based on their creative and technical skills, competitors were also evaluated on their ability to implement ICAF’s vision and message; preparing students for the real world work tasks.

“I had to put myself in the shoes of the ICAF and immerse myself in the vision and messaging they wanted to epitomize. It was challenging to internalize and develop all of these in 8 hours. However, I kept my cool and did the best that I could. Winning second place was definitely the icing on the cake and to be able to do this among such talented individuals is truly humbling,” Ng said.

In his winning artwork, Ng portrayed how children of the future are able to express themselves creatively through arts, sports, or even culture and added elements containing a Malaysian twist such as the Rafflesia. “I decided to try a different approach designing this flyer, as the style I chose required a lot of illustrations and drawings. I took time to draw and redraw using Adobe Creative Cloud, switching between Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Illustrator CC to enhance the overall effect,” explained Ng.