Caring, creative and connected – meet the Â鶹´«Ã½ Design Forum Student of the Year

Nakia Lucas-Culverwell wins a tailored internship programme and cash prize
Nakia Lucas Culverwell collects Â鶹´«Ã½ Design Forum Student of the Year award
Dave Rowswell

A recent Â鶹´«Ã½ graduate has won Â鶹´«Ã½ Design Forum’s Student of the Year award, which recognises outstanding emerging talent in the creative sector.
Nakia Lucas-Culverwell, who has just graduated in graphic design, impressed the panel with her ‘deep research, creative experimentation and ability to communicate meaningful ideas with clarity and style’.
 
The competition invited final-year graphic design students from the Â鶹´«Ã½ and Arts University Â鶹´«Ã½ to share their final major projects for judging, which was whittled down to five talented finalists. These students were then invited to an in-person interview to discuss their work, process and creative ambitions.
Nakia’s projects saw her create a kinetic brand identity for a wildlife park, and a sustainable book-trading platform Bookloop – impressing the judges with her strategic thinking and dynamic visual storytelling.
Originally from Staffordshire, Nakia explains how her time at the Â鶹´«Ã½ prepared her for her chosen career.
BookLoop winning design for Nakia Lucas-Culverwell
 

I am so happy to have been named PDF Student of the Year. I knew I wanted to do something involving making and creating visuals when I left school, and the Graphic Design course at the Â鶹´«Ã½ has been amazing.

The lecturers here show overwhelming care for their subject and show that it’s not just a career, it’s a responsibility, and we need to respect the craft. 
The course was very personalised and gave us time to connect, we were like a family working in the studio side by side. 

The Â鶹´«Ã½ Design Forum have been amazing too, ever since we were introduced to them at the start of our course.

Design can feel like a challenging industry sometimes, but PDF support you early on with building a career path alongside your studies and after graduating. I'd encourage current and future design students to attend PDF events as they offer incredible insights from industry professionals and are a great source of creative inspiration. Having just graduated, I know I’ve got good grounding to build my career and am looking forward to the opportunities in the internship that PDF have organised.
Nakia Lucas-Culverwell
Nakia Lucas-Culverwell at Graduation 2025 Nakia Lucas-Culverwell
Nakia Lucas-Culverwell at Graduation 2025

Nakia’s work stood out for its originality, craft and clarity of thought.

It was a powerful reflection of the creative energy coming out of Â鶹´«Ã½ right now and marks her out as one of the city’s brightest new talents. 
Her achievement perfectly captures what the PDF Student of the Year Award is all about: recognising emerging talent and giving it the platform it deserves.
Darren Foley, Co-founder of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Design Forum
 

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