By Rachel Au-Yong

CREATING original works of art, in Joie Lim's world, is like giving life to a garden by releasing butterflies.

So the 15-year-old student of Nan Hua High School drew a comic which depicted a novel, a movie and a musical score as carefree butterflies which perished the moment they were copied or downloaded illegally.

Her idea - from a field of 180 entries from 51 schools - won her the first prize in a contest run at a school holiday camp to teach Secondary 3 teenagers about intellectual property (IP) rights.

The students at the sixth annual IP Champion Camp run by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) were taught simple intellectual property law. They also took part in animation lectures and workshops during the three-day camp held at the ITE Central campus in Tampines.

Joie won herself a two-week internship with local animation company VividThree.

As part of her year-end stint with the company, she will learn how to convert her static comic strip into a 30-second animation clip.

The icing on the cake: The clip will be part of Ipos' public-education campaign.

The budding artist also took home a digital camera and the Ministry of Law Challenge Trophy for her school, in recognition of its support for IP and creativity.

Competition judge Charles Yeo, VividThree's business development director, said Joie's effort was the best for its beautiful art and simplicity of its message.

Her cartoon also won the popular vote among her fellow campers, giving her half the points that contributed to her win.

Said Ms Liew Woon Yin, Ipos' director-general, referring to the comic strips the students wrote and designed during the camp: 'If there has to be one takeaway for the students, I hope it's that they will better appreciate the value of their own work.

'And through that, maybe they'll see why IP is something to be treasured and respected.'

To that, Joie said: 'I was surprised to find out what piracy deprives original authors of.

'I will definitely think twice now about downloading illegal things.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.