KUCHING: Teo Sze Ting emerged victorious in the Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) Championship Malaysia 2021 after beating 29 other finalists from more than 10 institutions of higher learning.
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) stated that Teo won the annual global design competition which tested students’ design skills using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
She is one of the top three winners of the national level who will represent Malaysia at the global stage.
Teo is the second student from TAR UC who will be representing Malaysia to compete in the ACA World Championship 2021 which is set to take place later in the year.
“One TAR UC student first won the ACA Championship at the national level and emerged as first runner-up at the world championship in Florida, United States of America (USA) back in 2016,” the university college said in a statement yesterday (Thursday).
It explained that this year’s competition required participants to design posters on suicide issues and prevention for Befrienders Kuala Lumpur.
“In the first stage, participants were required to design and submit their poster with the theme ‘Let’s talk about it’. The first stage of competition attracted more than 700 participants from approximately 80 institutions of higher learning.
“The top 30 finalists were then selected for the final stage of the championship where they were required to design another poster with the theme ‘When there’s life, there’s hope’. The finalists were given eight hours to complete the poster and were required to livestream their design process via Discord before submission,” it said.
Meanwhile, Teo, who completed her secondary education at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Datuk Patinggi Haji Abdul Gapor here, said the competition was tough especially during the final stage.
She pointed out that she was not used to designing artworks within the time frame of eight hours.
“We were not allowed to refer to online sources for ideas which means we really needed to rely on our creativity to come up with an impactful concept for the poster.
“At the same time, I was also excited as the competition pushed me beyond my comfort zone to use my knowledge and skills to produce posters touching on an important issue that is prevalent in our society.
The Bachelor of Creative Multimedia (Hons) added that she had gained valuable skills and experience from participating in the competition.
Meanwhile, lecturer in the Department of Creative Industries at the Faculty of Communication and Creative industries (FCCI), Bernard Kong Yee Fong SAID he was proud of his students’ achievementS.
He pointed out that there were five other TAR UC students who made it to the final leG of the competition besides Teo.
“To compete in the final stage, the students were required to take the ACA certification examination. Considering the efforts and success of these six students who made it to the finals, the faculty was supportive in sponsoring them.
“To top it all off, all six students passed the certification examination and one of them went on to become the champion. The ACA certification will certainly add value to the students’ portfolios when they enter the industry,” he said.
