The Award Winners

Enzo Barracco – Photography Judge

Winner: Lauren Fung

The composition of the portraits is highly evocative, successfully connecting with the audience; everything is balanced through a graphic and artistic touch that naturally and harmoniously reinforces the message.

Francesca Macaulay – Architecture Judge

Student Winner:  Jayden Bennett

I’ve selected Jayden Bennett as this year's recipient of the Architecture Award. Jayden's project demonstrates an impressive understanding of the architectural design process, from early concept development and precedent studies through to iterative model making, drawings and highly resolved visualisations. The work explores the qualities of light, space and movement with confidence, while showing a mature ability to test and refine ideas throughout the project. The portfolio communicates both creativity and competence, and reflects a strong potential for further architectural study. I was particularly impressed by the clarity of the design journey and the thoughtful integration of research, experimentation and presentation into a cohesive and engaging architectural proposal.

 Douglas Cox – Media Judge

Student Winner: Luke Lucas

Walls That Speak

 I really enjoyed this short.  Choosing to use talking heads really works for this sort of short, particularly for exploring this subject matter while making the most of the limited resources.  I appreciated how the questions brought out a clear personality and humanity in the subject, despite not showing their face. I was delighted to learn a little about a community I don’t know much about and with this level of access, I could easily see this developing as a short series where we meet a bunch of different artists and showcase their work

 Sam Osborne - Fashion Judge Annabel Hoiles 

Winner: Annabel Hoiles 

I chose Annabel Hoile.  The work shows consistency from concept into the final garment with a real eye for detail and the intricacies of Harajuku style.  Annabel's illustration is well developed and shows good translation between her trim sampling character pages.

Her sampling pages are precisely laid out with well executed sampling which shows that she enjoyed the process and made them easy to understand.

The sample and design developments have good punctuation of detail across the characters showing considerable skill at range building with her developed trims.

The final pattern, although somewhat basic, is executed well and creates a good block for adding her trims and potentially making a number of different styles by choosing different trim types.

It's clear that Annabel has worked really hard but has also enjoyed the process with the amount of care and detail in her work creating a fun and engaging project that I have enjoyed judging.

Phil Stilgoe – NextGen judge

Winner Anna Krizelda Gimenez

 Once again, the Barnet & Southgate students have produced a great body of work – so firstly my congratulations to all the students and staff involved!  

Trying to choose a winner was no easy task. I really enjoyed Goldi’s deep dive into performance capture, and I thought Joseph’s character designs were brilliant, but it was Anna’s short films I enjoyed the most.

Anna’s animation was beautifully stylised and illustrated her stories well thus complimenting the narratives - all of which being consistent across multiple short films made it feel like a mini-series and left me wanting to know more about the characters involved.

Congratulations and very well done, Anna!

Anna Laurini – Art & Design Judge

Winner Jaiden Ampah
After carefully considering the nominated portfolios, I am pleased to select Jaiden Ampah as my choice for the Art & Design
Jaiden’s body of work on the theme of domestic violence demonstrates a maturity of concept and a strong command of visual language that is rare at this level. What struck me most was the range and consistency across different media — from the intricate pen and ink room drawings inspired by M.C. Escher, where the obsessive linework conveys psychological pressure and disorientation, to the fragmented mosaic portraits that express a victim’s sense of confinement and loss of self. Among the works, the mixed-media sculpture — with its tangled structure and suspended press cuttings — adds three-dimensional rawness. The final poster series is particularly accomplished: by incorporating their own original imagery alongside bold typographic slogans, Jaiden creates work that feels both personal and urgent, with a clear understanding of how design can serve a social message. Together, the pieces form a coherent and emotionally resonant body of practice that shows technical skill, creative range, and genuine artistic thinking.
Please pass on my congratulations to Jaiden, and my encouragement to all nominees — the standard on display is impressive.