GBC school of design named best in country based on student work.
George Brown College (GBC) has a new award to boast about.
The Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) recently ranked the top 10 design schools in Canada. GBC’s design school came in at number one winning the most awards and Honorable Mentions.
More than 100 judges from the RGD Association decided the rankings.
Rebecca Dudgeon, public relations manager with RGD, shared that they were curious to see how the design schools would be ranked by now.
“We thought it would be interesting to look at it. It was something we’d never done before. And we thought, we haven’t looked at this data. This program has been running for 26 years now. And let’s see what the ranking is for design schools.”
33 GBC students submitted 97 entries in total. This resulted in seven winners and 13 honourable mentions.
In total, 1,150 entries came from students across the country.
Ana Rita Morais, associate dean with the design school, was happy about the recognition, noting the hard work of students and faculty members.
“I was surprised but not surprised also to see us on the list. First of all, to be named number one is a huge accomplishment, so yeah, I can say that based on effort and engagement with faculty and students I’m not surprised at all, but you know it’s still really nice to see our name up at the top,” she said.
The winners received $1,000, awards certificates, and recognition across RGD communications channels.
A few noted entries from GBC that stood out for the judges include the winners of: 52 Pick-up Award for Typography, Arnold Street Media Award for Logo Design, Context Award for Story-telling, Gravity Award for Social Good Design (tie), and q30 design Award for Brand Design (tie).
Though not directly involved in the award process, the college encourages student participation, recognizing the visibility and networking opportunities it provides within the design industry.
Philip Mondor, with the RGD, said these awards give students a chance to show their work and get noticed.
“This is good practice, participating in awards like that and putting your work out there. It’s a way to be discovered. It’s a way to be celebrated. And I think there’s a great positivity in terms of promoting student thoughts and ideas, because it’s a new fresh new look at things, different biases, different backgrounds of people growing up.”
Students in the graphic design and brand design programs have student memberships to RGD included in their fees. This is just part of the longstanding partnership between the group and the college.
The awards for 2024 are going to be running later this year, and GBC is encouraging students from 2024 who’ve completed exceptional projects to also submit to the RGD student’s awards.
