Sam Davy, a graphic design student at the University of Northumbria, was yesterday awarded top prize in this year's British Design & Art Direction (D&AD) competition for students, writes Kam Patel.

As well as winning first prize for his work in the typography category of the awards, Mr Davy was also the overall student winner for the year. The prize was sponsored by Real Time Studio.

The brief set by D&AD for the typography category required students to suggest designs and layouts for Circular, a magazine aimed at the design and typography community. The judges for the category said they were "delighted" by the enthusiasm, careful research, variety of solutions and "just that little bit of wry humour" evident in all the entries.

The competition, which started in 1979, aims to provide a springboard into industry for the entrants and the winners. D&AD says that this year there were 950 entries resulting in 41 nominations, 15 first prizes, 14 second prizes and 12 commendations. Students from the University of Northumbria and Buckinghamshire College between them won eight prizes. All prizes had industrial sponsorship.

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Other first-prize winners include Buckinghamshire College's Ami Vandine in the corporate identity category; Steven Spencer of Ravensbourne College for his work for the brand identity section and Kes James of Kingston University in photography.

Ian Logan, chairman of D&AD's education committee said that more than 50 per cent of this year's winning projects have been accepted by the clients and will go into production.

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Launched in 1962, D&AD is a professional association and charity working on behalf of the design and advertising communities.