'It's a shit brief' – Campaign for this year's Design Bridge Dog's Bollocks Student Awards

The winning concept was: "Said no award winner ever", a tongue-in-cheek, copy-led poster design based on all the wrong advice – what your tutors wouldn’t say to you, all the things you shouldn’t do, and how not to make award-winning work.

Copy lines, such as "Don’t push it too far", "Just Google it" and "That will do", have been crafted to stand out, grab people’s attention and make them look twice. It’s only when you get up close that you see the "said no award winner ever" caption that you discover what it’s all about.

The posters were made with the help of local letterpress studio New North Press. Each poster was set and printed by hand before being individually hand-numbered (a lot of hands were used in the making of these posters). The result is 25 unique sets of three posters that have been sent out to universities to build extra awareness around Design Bridge's annual student competition, and encourage a bit of competitive (and creative) spirit amongst students.

The creative idea is the result of a collaborative effort between Georgi Heath who is on Design Bridge’s Client Servicing and Strategy Graduate Scheme, Beth Stone, a D&AD New Blood winner last year, along with other designers in the studio, all overseen by Asa Cook, Creative Director and the driving force behind the annual student competition.

As Asa recalls, "When I was at university there were lots of posters up on the walls that had been there for years, and this is what inspired my brief to the studio juniors. We wanted to make something that was well-executed and beautifully crafted – just like we are asking students to do when answering the brief – but we also wanted to make something that people would want to keep, something of value, with timeless advice."

This year’s Design Bridge Dog’s Bollocks Student Awards competition brief can be found at designbridge.com.