Limkokwing notched up another first when two of its students bagged gold, silver and bronze trophies at the recent 4As Kancil Awards in the student category.

Fajar Kurnia bagged three awards – gold, silver and bronze – for three entries. It was the first time that a student had captured three awards on his own.

Fajar had earlier won a bronze at this year’s Crowbar Awards and had also led the university’s team of eight to take the first prize in Dentsu-Toyota’s Blank Canvas competition.

According to the head of the university’s “indusity” team, Henry Lee, the standards of the Kancil Awards are high in line with the organisers’ focus on quality. Participants were given several weeks to produce their work. This year, 170 entries were received but only nine received awards in the student category under the theme, Fearless. 

Lee believed that one of the assets Fajar had was his analytical ability.  The judges were looking for “surprise elements”.

Fajar teamed up with Natasha Angeline to create their entry entitled I’m All Man When it Comes to Ideas. The entry was awarded a bronze.

Good facilities for work

Instead of taking credit, Fajar was thankful to his lecturers. ”They provided a lot of useful feedback which helped me to improve my work,” he said. “Another advantage is that we have access to good facilities for our work.”

Fajar’s persistence was reflected in the manner in which he worked on his gold-winning entry, an advertisement with the heading, In only 22 days, I became the first legal dog owner in Cyberjaya. Like the title suggested, it highlighted his attempt to be allowed the right to keep a dog in his apartment.

It took Fajar at least 10 attempts before he got his copy right, and three changes were made in art direction.

His Working Visa entry that won silver was inspired by a personal experience—his frustration when seeking employment in Malaysia. “It’s not easy for a foreigner to get work here. I went to see some creative directors hoping to secure work and although they liked my work, were reluctant to hire me. Working Visa is my way of highlighting the problem faced.”

Fajar invited Natasha, a friend for many years, to join forces with him in the entry I’m All Man that ultimately won bronze. “She came out with the idea of using balls to express feelings and I looked at the technical aspect of it,” he recalled.

An avid photographer, Fajar used his skill and his knowledge of photo mosaic software to create two huge posters featuring him and Natasha.