ORLANDO – August 8, 2018
The winners of the 2018 Adobe® Certified Associate (ACA) World Championship have been announced by Certiport, the leading provider of performance-based IT certification exams that accelerate academic and career opportunities for learners.
In its 6th year, the competition attracted more than 112,000 contestants from 66 countries to prove their superior digital communications skills using Adobe Photoshop®, Adobe Illustrator® and Adobe InDesign®. Apirat Horvichien from Thailand won the top prize out of 43 finalists who came to the final round of competition at the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista in Orlando, Florida from July 29 to August 1. He was sponsored by Certiport’s partner in Thailand, ARIT Co, LTD.
The 2018 ACA World Champions are as follows:
- First place, Apirat Horvichien, Thailand
- Second place, Ratchadaporn Ondeekul, Thailand
- Third place, Nguyễn Trần Thảo Nguyên, Vietnam
- Fourth place, Keereetharn Siriwech, Thailand
- Fifth place, Dayeon Choe, South Korea
- Sixth place, Tu Nguyen, Iowa, USA
- Seventh place, Du Sansan, Singapore
- Eighth place, Lei Kuan Teng, Macau
- Ninth place, Romina Arosemena Perez, Ecuador
- Tenth place, Analia Olmedo Martinez, Paraguay
- People’s Choice Award winner as voted by attendees: Chan Ching Yee, Singapore
Finalists demonstrated their proficiency using industry-leading Adobe software to create a flyer for non-profit client TakingITGlobal. TakingITGlobal is one of the world's leading networks of young people learning about, engaging with, and working towards tackling global challenges.
“Apirat’s design was a flyer we could use to share our message – and we were very impressed with all of the final entries,” said Tania Rashid, TakingITGlobal. “Design professionals have to be able to think on their feet, follow client instructions, and add in their personal style and creativity while staying on brand. The ACA World Championship finalists were able to do that in such a short amount of time. I’m confident they all have bright futures ahead.”
A panel of judges including the client and design industry experts reviewed the final projects and determined the winners based on the correct usage of the Adobe Creative Suite, the ability to incorporate the client’s brand and text requirements, and aesthetics. The first-place winner received $7,000, second $3,500, and third $1,500.
“The ACA World Championship allows young people to prove that they can put their Adobe skills to use in a real-world setting,” said Ray Murray, Vice President and General Manager - IT, Pearson VUE. “These students took on a project for a real client, and created a professional-level design in just one day. The way they were able to bring together their artistic talent with technical skills is very impressive.”
“The projects are all compelling and professional, it’s hard to believe that the competitors had a tight deadline of only eight hours,” said Tacy Trowbridge, Global Education Programs Lead at Adobe. “It was thrilling to see how each student used Adobe Creative Cloud to bring their vision to life. I hope this experience has inspired them to keep creating.”
Certiport is the leading provider of learning curriculum, practice tests, and performance-based IT certification exams that accelerate academic and career opportunities for learners. Certiport provides certification development, delivery, and program management services through an expansive network of more than 14,000 Certiport Authorized Testing Centers worldwide. More than 3 million Certiport exams are delivered in 26 languages across 148 countries each year throughout the academic, workforce, and corporate technology markets. Certiport is a Pearson VUE business, and is a part of the world’s leading learning company, Pearson. To learn more, go to www.certiport.com.
"Certiport" is a registered trademark of NCS Pearson, Inc. in the United States and other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.