The winner of the inaugural Design NSW: Travelling Scholarship, a new award presented by the Powerhouse Museum and British Council with Arts NSW, was announced on 7 August at the official launch of Sydney Design 08. The winner - Matthew Huynh - received $18,000 in prize money, which will be used to fund an overseas sabbatical and develop his professional career.
Huynh, a designer of graphic novels and literary comic books, was thrilled to take out the award, and planned to take up the scholarship in November, attending a creative course in London run by writers and artists who work in the industry.
“There’s no formal support for the professional development of people who work with comics and graphic novels in Australia,” Huynh said. “This award means I can get to the UK where literary comics are more embedded in the culture.”
The scholarship is an initiative of Arts NSW and funded through the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy, a partnership between the Australian and New South Wales Governments. The scholarship is open to NSW designers within their first five years of professional practice, and open to designers working in the broad areas of product and communication design.
NSW Arts Minister Frank Sartor said: “This scholarship is an example of how the Iemma Government is working to nurture the creative industries in NSW and it offers emerging designers a great opportunity to take that next step in their professional development.”
The scholarship will take Huynh to the UK where the British Council will facilitate introductions to up to eight leading practitioners relevant to the winner's field. The scholarship funds can also be used for additional, approved, professional development activities.
There were four finalists selected from 32 entries received - Trent Jansen, Brad Stebbing, Sarah Gibson & Nicholas Karlovasitis (joint) and the winner, Matthew Huynh. Entries were judged by a committee of industry leaders including Karen McCartney (Editor, Inside Out); Joel Gethin Lewis (United Visual Artists); Martin Kornberger (Assoc Prof. Faculty of Business and Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, UTS); and Marcus Trimble (Super Colossal).
The judges’ decision was based on the ability and suitability of the proposed program of study/professional development, with designs assessed on criteria including: authenticity and innovation, practicality and performance, ecological impact and social responsibility, and market potential.
Architect Marcus Trimble said the judges were very impressed with the overall quality of the competition. “The four finalists stood out through their consistency of approach. We identified a clear intention through each of the entrants’ works and that was particularly evident with the winner.
“Matthew Huynh is incredibly driven in the pursuit of the medium he’s chosen. He was by far the most passionate about his discipline and what he wants to achieve. He talked about using the scholarship to learn about the industry overseas and bring that knowledge back to Australia to encourage the development of a fledgling comic book industry which questions the identity of what Australian comic books might be,” Trimble said.The top twenty entries are on view in the King’s Cinema at the Powerhouse Museum daily at 11.15am and 1.30pm throughout Sydney Design 08.
Click here for further information about the Design NSW: Travelling Scholarship winner, Matthew Huynh.
Click here for further information about the Design NSW: Travelling Scholarship finalists.
Click here for a PDF copy of the media release.