News: Adobe gocreate.co.za competition is back

The heat is on for creatives in the field of video, web, photography & design to square off & and win their share of over R300 000 in prizes in Adobe’s second annual gocreate.co.za competition, launched earlier this month.

Organisers are expecting a “bigger & better” number of entries, largely due to the fact that the format has changed. “We’re expecting a much larger number of participants - over last years’ 3100 entries - as the categories now include a much broader section of the creative industry, namely: web, design, video & photography,” says Leonard Rabotapi, PR & marketing manager for Adobe, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Previously entrants were divided into their rank (Creative Professionals, Students & Agencies) and this excluded creatives such as photographers. “Already there are several interesting photographic entries as well as a high calibre of web, video & design entries,” he says.

Creative participation

A competition like this gives the creative community a credible platform from which to showcase their talents & expose their work to the industry. So believes Craig Wells, one of the designers at Injozi, a Johannesburg-based studio that specialises in, and strives to perfect, the art of photography, graphic, digital and audio design.

The Injozi team submitted their self-promotional website into this year’s competition. “We worked really hard to craft our website, and since we made use of all the facets of our company - photography, production, design, audio and flash development, we feel it gives a well-rounded breakdown of our capabilities,” says Wells.

According to him, Adobe is the “industry-standard” within the creative field and Injozi makes use of a wide range from the Adobe Creative Suite, including Illustrator, Photoshop, After-Effects & Flash. “We make an effort to keep up with new developments in order to stay fresh & innovative.”

Some of the photos entered in the gocreate.co.za Photo category

Social Media Integration

Social media will play an even greater role this year as Adobe encourages entrants to lobby for votes using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and to use sites such as YouTube & Flickr to host their entries so voters have easier access to their entries.

Rabotapi says entrants will need to obtain a minimum of 100 votes for their entries to be listed in the Hall of Fame and so doing, be eligible for both the weekly spot prizes and the grand prizes. “Social media sites are a fantastic way of exposing their work & getting the votes needed,” he says. Adobe has also created its own Facebook & Twitter pages for the gocreate.co.za competition, which runs until 30 September 2011.

The competition is open to all students and creative professionals across Africa and the rest of the world. The general public is encouraged to participate and vote for their favourites in each of the four categories – and stand a chance to win industry-sponsored prizes.

Wells says the prizes are another great drawcard for entering, with Rabotapi confirming that the sponsored prizes are mainly focused on encouraging growth and skills development within the creative industry.

Vanessa Munnik-Wallace, product manager for Adobe at Comztek believes the gocreate.co.za campaign is the “perfect stage” to showcase how aspiring new talent uses Adobe solutions to communicate creatively. “We believe in nurturing and discovering new talent and supporting our vendor and this great new initiative is key to the industry, and Comztek’s, success,” she says.

The 2011 gocreate.co.za competition is proudly sponsored by: Comztek, Dax Data, Digicape, Enjin Magazine, Flip Video, Friends of Design, Intersoft, Keyline, Labspace, Learning Curve, Loerie Awards, MSD, Nikon, Touchvision, TypeDNA & Workgroup.

For further information, visit www.gocreate.co.za

Prizes & sponsors

Industry sponsorships have helped boost the prestige of this year’s competition, giving away a total of over R300 000 in prizes, including:

An HP Laptop & Toon Boom software bundle worth R20 000 from Touchvision
A Nikon DSLR camera worth R10 000
Several training vouchers from MSD, Keyline, Labspace and Friends of Design
A Microsoft Xbox 360 console plus Kinect sensor & game from Comztek
An Apple iPad 16 GB Wi-Fi & Apple iPod Shuffle 2 GB from Digicape
Flip Video Ultra HD Camera
Several practical training manuals from Intersoft
A TypeDNA Font tool
A Loeries 2011 DVD Set
Magazine subscriptions from Enjin magazine

Adobe gocreate.co.za competition is back

Related Articles

Most Read Articles

Have Your Say