TAFE SA graphic design student Jake Newland’s bold artwork highlighting the hidden trauma many refugees carry with them has won the tertiary category of the SA Refugee Week Youth Poster Awards Exhibition.

The annual poster competition and exhibition is run by the Australian Migrant Resource Centre to coincide with World Refugee Day and SA Refugee Week in June.

The competition is open to primary, secondary and tertiary students, who are asked to produce a poster that celebrates themes surrounding the United Nations International Refugee Convention, such as multiculturalism, human rights, cultural diversity and anti-racism.

TAFE SA students won all three prizes in the tertiary category, with Jake receiving the winner’s Certificate of Merit, Emily Ross named runner-up and Oli Withers highly commended.

Jake, who is studying the Advanced Diploma of Graphic Design at the Adelaide College of the Arts (AC Arts), says participating in the competition provided an opportunity to push his design skills while learning more about the refugee experience.

“I wasn’t very educated about our immigration program and where our refugees are coming from, so I did some research and it was eye-opening; it’s quite confronting looking at some of the situations that people are trying to escape,” he says.

Drawing on his research and the Refugee Week theme, ‘A Million Stories’, Jake used a dark colour palette to evoke a sense of bleakness about the refugee experience while producing a design that conveys hope.

The poster, which has the tagline ‘Not every story is visible’, depicts someone emerging from a long, dark hallway to stand at the entrance, watching the dawn of a new day. The person’s long shadow carries snippets of text — the story of a journey to safety.

“My design represents the inner trauma of how a person escapes a bad situation and finds safety in another country,” says Jake, adding that he was surprised and grateful to have his design named the winner.

“It was nice to hear people’s thoughts on my design on the day of the awards because I had a lot of self-doubt about the project.

“When I was working on my entry, I was staying late after class to experiment with different layouts, and I felt like I was getting nowhere. I had to trust the process.”

In his second year of graphic design study, Jake says he appreciates the real-world projects and industry networking opportunities that are part of his course at TAFE SA.

Last year he created a sunset-inspired car wrap for Sun Sprite, the SA Solar Vehicle Association’s entrant in the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Car Challenge, after hearing about the project through his lecturer.

He works part-time at a graphics company and is also establishing a custom drum wrap business.

“Being creative is just awesome. I’ve been playing around with design programs since I was 12 because I like making cool stuff and I’m so glad to be in this industry,” he says.

Photo credit: Australian Migrant Resource Centre/Photographers Dinuka Liyanawatte and Mira Soulio.