Adobe ACA UK & IE Championship

This month, I had the amazing opportunity to take part in the Adobe ACA UK & IE Championship in a virtual final.

Everyone within the creative industry will know of the Adobe Creative Cloud and its industry-leading software, but not so many will know of Adobe ACA – Adobe Certified Associate, which is a certification that demonstrates an individual’s proficiency in specific Adobe software.

I was lucky enough to have the option to take ACA exams alongside my graphic design course at the University of Portsmouth, becoming an Adobe Certified Associate in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop. Through taking these exams I was then awarded Adobe badges for the respective software, which I was then able to add to my portfolio and CV. Who knows? Maybe it got me the job at Tilt.

The UK and Ireland championship selects the top 20 scorers in these ACA exams and invites them to take part in a national competition that tests students’ design and creative communication skills.

This year’s charity partner for the design challenge was Barnardo’s Ireland. Barnardo’s vision is a country where every child can reach their full potential. They help transform children’s lives through their services; supporting parents; and challenging society where it fails our children. They are a trauma-informed organisation that takes a holistic approach in how they support children, looking after the heart, the body, and the mind. In the last year, they have helped 18,000 children and families in need.

Barnardo’s Ireland invited us to design work for their upcoming fund-raising campaign ‘Jump the Generator tower for Barnardos’. We were challenged with creating an A4 poster, inviting corporate partners to have their team members take part and raise funds for the cause. The poster design needed to be two-sided, enabling it to be re-used as a thank you message while showcasing the amount raised.

We were given some time to read over the brief and Barnardo’s’ brand guidelines and then we were off designing our little hearts out, submitting our designs that same afternoon.

It was great fun to get involved in such a quick and engaging brief, encouraging me to trust in my design skills and knowledge to make snappy design decisions and use the Adobe software with ease. It’s also lovely to get involved with such a great cause, creating innovative designs that have a meaningful impact on society. To top it off, my design was lucky enough to be in the top three!