By Tiffany Fumiko Tay

Singapore's design scene has a new achievement to boast about.

Two Temasek Polytechnic students have made history by being the first outside the United Kingdom to win the design industry's equivalent of the Oscars - the Yellow Pencil Awards' top creative prize, Student of the Year - in the 30 years the student awards have been given out.

Reinald Chee from the Interactive Media Design course and Jason Feng from the Moving Images course, both 20, beat 3,500 other applicants from over 40 countries in the students category. Their winning entry is a three-part response to an open brief by sponsor Music Television (MTV) to deliver the topic MTV As A Virus.

The pair were looking for a subject for their final-year project when they stumbled upon the competition hosted by British Design and Art Direction (D&AD), a non-profit educational organisation that funds design and advertising programmes, and decided to enter as a team with their lecturers' blessings.

Contestants could choose from 31 different topics, and the winners for each went on to compete for the Student of the Year award.

Chee and Feng, who took on the MTV project, had to embody the music channel as a virus that invades spaces and show how it affects its environment, while considering its background as a pioneer in music and entertainment culture.

The first part of their project, a four-minute video, sees the main character Adam, played by a classmate, discovering a bottle of brightly coloured sweets with the words MTV engraved on them, and eating one. He becomes 'infected' and proceeds to perform a slew of stunts amid special effects.

The second part is an interactive instalment, and the third is a CD handout with the story's conclusion on how to treat the virus through a slideshow.

At a press conference at Temasek Polytechnic yesterday, Chee credited their win to being over-ambitious: 'We were the only ones who tried to do so much - most of the others had only video presentations, though I feel they were much more focused.'

Feng added: 'We both have different artistic styles, but we didn't try to make them the same. In fact, we wanted to make them as different as possible. Creativity creates individualism.'

The duo flew to London to attend the awards ceremony two weeks ago, and collected their statuettes and cash prize of ?1,000 (S$2,694) each.

But they're not basking in their success just yet. When asked how they feel about being the first Singaporeans to win this prestigious award, Chee said: 'Pressured. We've set the benchmark so we have to keep the standard up.'

Commenting on the win, Dr Milton Tan, executive director of DesignSingapore Council, which sponsored their trip to London, said: 'By winning the D&AD Best Student Award, Jason and Reinald have strengthened Singapore's position in the international map of creative hot spots - a place where young talents, practising designers and academics thrive at the leading edge.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 9 July 2008.