Winners announced in Dax Data online graphics competition

Johannesburg, 28 Jul 2003

Dax Data, with partners Pearson Education and THOS, have announced the winners of the graphic design competition, `return-by-design`, which they recently co-hosted in a bid to encourage ex-patriot South Africans to return to the country.

The Vega School of Brand Communications in Johannesburg boasted two of the top three designs, with Anthony Marais in first place and Fred Wolmarans coming third. Nic Black`s design took second place. Black is currently studying at the Hirt & Carter`s Training School in Cape Town. These three entries will be sent to ex-patriots across the world as part of the Home-Coming Revolution Campaign.

Jeremy Matthews, MD of Dax Data, congratulated the winners, saying: "We are extremely pleased with the outstanding level of competence in using Flash that was demonstrated in these entries. The number of great designs using this Macromedia technology was extremely encouraging for Dax Data, our partners in this competition and the graphic design world as a whole."

According to Matthews, the competition was aimed at current or aspiring flash designers and entries had to be created as a Macromedia Flash movie with a maximum size of 80k. "By sending these electronic postcards to ex-patriots we are hoping to encourage them to return to the country, bringing their skills and business with them," he says.

Prizes for the first three winning designs include the Macromedia Software Packages Studio MX and Flash MX, Web and Graphics books and an LG W3000 cellphone sponsored by Nashua Mobile. Vega School of Brand Communications will receive R10 000 worth of Web and graphic books from Pearson Education SA.

Pearson Education SA

Pearson is the world`s largest and most highly regarded publisher of information technology books and training material. With the most trusted computing brands in its stable, Pearson offers authoritative training and information to the entire spectrum of computer users. Our proactive approach has led to strategic alliances with global software development giants such as Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Macromedia, Adobe and Microsoft, for all of whom Pearson acts as official publisher.

Pearson Education South Africa (PESA) publishes educational, reference and lifestyle resources in both print and electronic form to promote personal and professional development for all ages and literacy levels. Our product range extends from pre-school and home education to adult literacy, from technical to academic programmes, and from corporate management to personal development. (E-mail: itminds@pearsoned.co.za)

Dax Data

Dax Data is a value add software distributor providing solutions in the Web development and Web enablement area. Incorporated in September 1989, Dax Data has offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg, is an IBM Business Partner, a Microsoft Solution Provider and holds local distribution rights for Macromedia, NetManage, DataMirror and Graphon products. The company has an extensive skills-base for these products, assisting southern African enterprises to tackle complex host-to-any connectivity issues, Internet-based delivery mechanisms and data replication solutions. Dax Data and its partners offer value-added services around the Web enablement of business applications - in effect, helping customers to maximise their investment in systems by making the data, information and applications they contain available across multiple backend and client technologies. (www.daxdata.co.za)

Homecoming Revolution

What on earth is the Homecoming Revolution? A voluntary initiative aimed at encouraging expat South Africans to return home. Why? Because a bunch of us back home, who`ve returned after living overseas, know that this is the place to be. This is the land of opportunity. Sure, it`s not perfect, but hey, don`t wait until it gets better, Homecome: and make it even better! (www.thr.co.za)

THOS (The House of Synergy)

With more than eight years of direct and dedicated experience in Internet-based business and communications, THOS is one of SA`s foremost specialist IT organisations. Often recognised for its creative and natty style, THOS offers a wide range of traditional Internet products and services plus many other imaginative and exciting innovations. (www.thos.co.za)