Balasz Hirst, HND Visual Communication: Graphic Design student from Edinburgh College, is pictured.

A student has won a competition to design a logo for a new website which will provide a single source of information for those considering progressing from college to degree study.

Balasz Hirst, a HND Visual Communication: Graphic Design student from Edinburgh College, won a competition to design the website logo for ‘Pathways’ – a new ‘one-stop shop’ of information for students taking steps from Higher National Certificate and Diploma courses onto a University degree.

There are many pathways and routes of study from Higher National Certificate and Diploma to degrees, and advertising, promotion and understanding of routes is often complex and difficult for pupils, students and advisers to find and navigate.

The website, which will be fully mobile friendly, will play a vital role in making things clearer for all.   

Currently in testing, the new website is a partnership between colleges and universities in the Fife, Edinburgh, Lothian, Borders, Falkirk and Stirling areas.

As one of the main target group of users, students from the partner colleges and universities took part in a competition at the start of March to create the logo design for the website. A cash prize of £250 was also offered for the winning student.

The competition was judged by a panel of representatives from the contributing institutions with Edinburgh College’s Balasz Hirst’s design coming out on top.   

Balasz’s logo will be showcased publicly for the first time later this month at the College Development Network’s Virtual Expo 2020 as the four primary development partners - Fife College, Edinburgh College, Edinburgh Napier University and Queen Margaret University - deliver a workshop on the new website to sector colleagues. 

Iain Hawker, Assistant Principal at Fife College said: “Competition entries were received from students across a number of partner institutions.  Although the quality of submissions was extremely high, which made the challenge for the judges very difficult, Balasz’s design was fantastic and he is much a deserving winner.

“We look forward to seeing Balasz’s design on the final website which we hope will play a key role in making the wide variety of articulation pathways available between colleges and university degrees easier to understand and navigate for everyone.” 

Jon Buglass, Vice Principal, Edinburgh College said “Participating on the judging panel was a great privilege and an enjoyable experience to view the ideas behind all the submitted design entries.  I am very pleased the panel agreed on the Pathways design submitted by Balasz and on behalf of the judging panel congratulate him on his win.”

The Pathways website is scheduled to launch this summer.

Full list of Colleges and Universities involved in the Pathways website project:

  • Fife College
  • Borders College
  • Edinburgh College
  • Forth Valley College
  • Newbattle Abbey College
  • West Lothian College
  • Edinburgh Napier University
  • Heriot Watt University
  • Open University
  • Queen Margaret University
  • University of Edinburgh
  • Scotland’s Rural University College (SRUC)
  • University of St Andrews
  • University of Stirling