Abbie Graham, a design and communications apprentice at Spatial Services in Bathurst, has won the 2021 Heidelberg/LIA NSW Graduate of the Year.
The 20-year-old joined Spatial Services during her final year of high school after doing work experience there in 2016 and last year completed her Certificate III in Printing and Graphic Arts (Graphic PrePress) at Ultimo TAFE in Sydney where she topped her class.
This year’s runners up in the Heidelberg/LIA NSW Graduate of the Year program was Matthew Zunic of Sydney’s Imagination Graphics and Hisham Hamdan of Ligare.
NSW Lithographic Institute of Australia vice president, Peter Munro, said all candidates put in strong applications and it was a very close race in the end.
“The judging this year was very close and the graduates had all made great submissions,” Munro told Sprinter.
“Abbie stood out in the end with her interview as she was very confident in how she explained where she wants to go in the industry. We thought she would be an outstanding candidate to send to the National Awards (at PacPrint) in September.”
Munro said the Heidelberg/LIA trophies will be formally awarded to Abbie and her employer, Spatial Services, at the 2021 NSW Printing Industry Creativity Awards.
The NSW PICAs were due to be held in Sydney next Friday July 16 but with the current lockdown extended for Greater Sydney, the event is now likely to be held in August.
Later in the year, Abbie will go in the running for the biennial Lithographic Institute of Australia National Awards at PacPrint in Melbourne which includes the chance to win a Visual Connections/LIA National Scholarship Prize.
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Congratulations to all the finalists, especially Abbie who is our granddaughter, and we are very proud of her achievements. Her being named for this prestigious award is a great boost for her confidence, not only in this field but personally as well,
A big thankyou to her workplace and also to her TAFE teacher who obviously could see a talent in Abbie, and has given her the guidance to pursue this, well done ????