It gives me great pleasure to announce this year’s Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA) finalists and honorable mention recipients. These talented individuals were selected during an intensive two-day judging process that brings together a diverse group of design educators and professionals. More than thirty preliminary and eleven official judges, hailing from sixteen different countries, contributed their unique cultural perspectives and wealth of design insight to the task of selecting the finalists. Let me tell you, the judges had their work cut out for them!

Every year, we receive thousands of amazing submissions, making this a really challenging competition. During the 2012 open call-for-entries, the ADAA received 4,979 submissions from more than 70 countries. The student entries were judged on originality, effectiveness in meeting the communication objective and skill in applying Adobe products. Faculty submissions were scored on educational innovation and the development of applications to better an overall educational experience. Based on this criteria, the judges narrowed the field to 1,200 semifinalists, and from that group, 41 finalists and 20 honorable mention recipients were selected. Entries from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and United States make up the finalists and honorable mention recipients.

Winners will be selected from among the 41 finalist entries and announced on November 9, 2012, at the Adobe Design Achievement Awards ceremony in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as part of the DesignThinkers 2012 convention.

On behalf of Adobe, I congratulate our 2012 finalists and encourage all of you to give a big shout out to these talented students and educators (listed alphabetically by category below; also available here):

Animation: Group leader Christopher DeVito, School of Visual Arts, United States

Animation: Ainslie Henderson, Edinburgh College of Art, Great Britain

Animation: Brett Underhill, New York University, United States

Application Development: Benoît Boucart, Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen (HOWEST), Belgium

Application Development: Bram Monstrey, Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen (HOWEST), Belgium

Browser Based Design: Group leader Sanghun Heo, Hongik University, Korea

Browser Based Design: Vanessa Li, Sheridan College, Canada

Browser Based Design: Group leader Won-young So, Kookmin University, Korea

Game Design and Development: Group leader Mitchell Brien, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Game Design and Development: Kamonwit Sirithananonsakul, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand

Illustration: Yeni Kim, Royal College of Art, Great Britain

Illustration: Jung Hee Lim, Kookmin University, Korea

Illustration: Zhongxuan (Sam) Liu, Guangxi Arts Institute of China, China

Innovation in Interactive Media in Education: Group leader Carlos Amaral, Centro Universitário Augusto Motta, Brazil

Innovation in Interactive Media in Education: Anna Zyrianova, St. Petersburg State Academy of Art and Design, Russia

Innovation in Motion and Video in Education: Hector Herrera, Ontario College of Art and Design, Canada

Innovation in Traditional Media in Education: Dan Bittman, AIC College of Design, United States

Innovation in Traditional Media in Education: Kyuha Shim, Rhode Island School of Design, United States

Innovation in Traditional Media in Education: Mengyi Xie, East China Normal University School of Communication, China

Installation Design: Group leader James Coltman, University of the Arts London, Great Britain

Installation Design: Group leader Dongseop Lee, Chung-Ang University, Korea

Installation Design: Group leader Amanda Rezza, Iuav University of Venice, Italy

Live Action: Group leader Zhen Wei Cheong, Tunku Abdul Rahman College, Malaysia

Live Action: Christopher Lavelle, Sunderland University, Great Britain

Live Action: Marc Rühl, Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main, Germany

Mobile Design: Minzhe Chen Cheng, Ringling College of Art and Design, United States

Mobile Design: Group leader Ornella Giau, Iuav University of Venice, Italy

Mobile Design: Kirsten Southwell, North Carolina State University, United States

Motion Graphics: Group leader Andrej Balaz, collaboration between the University of the Arts Bremen, Germany and the University of Monterey, Mexico

Motion Graphics: Michael Rigley, California College of the Arts, United States

Motion Graphics: Matan Yaniv, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Israel

Non-Browser Based Design: Group leader Lee Soyoung, Hongik University, Korea

Packaging: Group leader Seungkwan Kang, collaboration between the Sungkyunkwan University and Kookmin University, Korea

Packaging: Mark O’Brien, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Ireland

Packaging: Richelle Rogers, York University/Sheridan College, Canada

Photography: Wade Hudson, Humber College, Canada

Photography: Pablo Jimenez, Academy Of Art University, United States

Photography: Hyunjin Kim, Ewha Womans University, Korea

Print Communications: Jeff Han, Art Center College of Design, United States

Print Communications: Jerod Rivera, Art Center College of Design, United States

Print Communications: Nada Seet, Saudi Arabia, School of Visual Arts, United States

For more information on Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2012, please go to www.adobeawards.com. You can also follow our journey by checking out our Facebook or Twitter channels.