Limkokwing London recently organised an Ebola awareness poster design competition to help build awareness among the public towards this fatal disease.

In response to the spread of Ebola in West Africa, a disease with no specific cure, Limkokwing London has set up a competition to design a poster to build awareness among the public of this fatal disease. The competition was open to all, including professionals and students (with or without a design background).

Limkokwing University recognises the current humanitarian emergency occurring in West Africa, and has already begun an Ebola awareness campaign in Sierra Leone with the slogan ‘STOP EBOLA’ to educate the public on what they must do to protect themselves.

The STOP EBOLA campaign, with the objective to educate the public to take the necessary steps to stay safe in the wake of the outbreak, is being disseminated through radio, television, flyers, car stickers, posters, T-shirts and billboards.

Limkokwing University has a long history of being actively involved with many peace and health campaigns since its inception, including an HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign, the Global Humanitarian Appeal for Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Perdana Global Peace Forum.

The Ebola Awareness Poster Design Competition brief was published online on 27th October 2014, with a deadline set for 10th November.

Despite the relative shortness of time to design and submit, the University was impressed and delighted with the response, receiving more than 30 entries from 15 countries around the world, with entries coming from Venezuela, Ecuador, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Ukraine, USA, Indonesia, Kosovo, Germany, Malaysia, China, Vietnam and Mauritius. All these entries have been compiled into a booklet, which can be downloaded from the link at the end of this article.

Some of the designs had been submitted from students at Limkokwing’s campuses, but the majority of entries were by individuals from around the world.

The judging panel for the competition comprised of Ms. Sean Wilder (creative producer and project manager at Immersive Ltd.), Mr. Illugi Eysteinsson (architect, university lecturer, and also a consultant tutor at City University, and the University of the Arts (both in London), and the International Design School, Moscow), Mr. Chris Hughes (graphic designer, lecturer and architectural historian), and Mr. Mehrdad Borna (Academic coordinator and Senior lecturer at Limkokwing London).

Two days after the closing date, on 12th November, all poster entries were laid out in the Robert Adam Room at Limkokwing London, with the details of the designers hidden from the judges (on the back of the submissions) to prevent any favouritism, and to maintain the impartiality of the judging process.

After an extensive period going through all the entries, the judges were asked to decide upon a short list of ten. Discussion and voting upon each entry shortlisted by each of the judges ensued, until the judges had agreed upon the final ten. Following this, the judges were asked to pick a winner and runner-up. The same process of discussion and voting was followed, although, it should be noted, the votes for the winning entry were unanimous.

On 14th November, the Robert Adam Room at Limkokwing London played host to the awards ceremony for the Ebola Awareness Poster Design Competition. The event was introduced by Mrs. Sunny Hosseinkhani, who acted as MC for the event.

Ms. Jenny Theolin of Soapbox & Sons Ltd. was the keynote speaker at the event. After explaining her role within the company and various projects she had worked on, Ms. Theolin proceeded to show two videos showcasing previous charity-led poster competitions that she had organised.

The first video showed an exhibition of art inspired by the internet LOLcats phenomenon, and mounted in aid of the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. The second video concerned a recent exhibition celebrating the twentieth anniversary of one of world’s most unloved, but widely used fonts, Comic Sans (designed by Vincent Connare, who was also in attendance at the exhibition). The hugely successful exhibition was entitled ‘Comic Sans for Cancer’, and boasted entries from over 500 artists and designers. The proceeds from this exhibition were donated to Cancer Research UK.

After Ms. Theolin inspiring and entertaining presentation, a short video on the devastating impact of Ebola, which was provided by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), was shown. The University had invited the DEC to attend, however the huge volume of essential work being undertaken by a small dedicated team, meant that unfortunately, they were not able to come.

Following the video, competition judge Mr. Illugi Eysteinsson gave a short talk about the judging process, as noted above.

Ms. Jenny Theolin and the judging panel were then invited to the stage, and the names of the ten short-listed entrants were read out. Jenny presented certificates of participation to all short-listed entrants who had been able to attend the ceremony.

Mr. Mehrdad Borna was then called upon to announce the competition runner-up.

Fortunately the runner-up was a group with two members, Mr. Wong Yiak Leong and Ms. Woo Suck San (both from Malaysia), visiting students on Limkokwing University’s Global Campus programme, and therefore in attendance at the event. They received a certificate and prize money of £150.00, in the form of an outsized cheque. The students were then invited to talk briefly about their design.

Finally, the winner for the Limkokwing Ebola Awareness Poster Design Competition was announced. The winner was Mr. Tan Tian Sheng from Indonesia. Unfortunately, as he was over 7000 miles away in Indonesia, Mr. Tan wasn’t in attendance at the event. In a highly entertaining acceptance video, Mr. Tan talked about his design and noted his kind intention to donate much of the £350.00 prize money to the campaign to fight Ebola.

Mr. TB Karki, Limkokwing’s Associate Director of International Campus Management, then went on stage to give the closing speech. Mr. Karki noted that “educational establishments can no longer justify their role simply concentrating on breeding a new generation with skills and expertise, but they are also expected to play wider role in educating students to create awareness and involve them when there are natural calamities and epidemics like Ebola.”

“This provides them with a sense of responsibility towards society, community they are lived in and humanitarian and philanthropic work society expect from them. Multi-dimensional development of their graduates is no longer an option, rather is a must”, he added. 

In closing the ceremony, the MC Mrs. Hosseinkhani informed the audience that there was a collection box for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Ebola Fund at the reception. This money raised on the day has since been donated to the DEC.

Mrs. Hosseinkhani closed the event by saying, “We can only hope that this terrifying epidemic will come to an end soon, and that a cure will be discovered. Our thoughts are with the victims, the attending medical teams, and the tragically increasing number of orphans whose parents have succumbed to this monstrous disease.”

Click here to download the Ebola awareness poster design competition booklet.

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