Sookmyung Women's University Achieves Award at World's Largest Advertising Festival 'Cannes Lions'

Creativity Proven in the University Category

Sookmyung Women's University announced on June 17 that its students have won an award at the Cannes Future Lions, the student competition of Cannes Lions, which is regarded as the world's largest advertising festival. This marks the first time in Korea that an award has been won through a regular university course.

(From left) Ji-young Park, Geun-a Kim, Su-min Lee, Ha-eun Jung, Kyung-min Lee, and Jang-ho Moon, Professor of Advertising and Public Relations. Sookmyung Women's University

The five award-winning students?Geuna Kim (Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Class of 2021), Jiyoung Park (School of Business Administration, Class of 2021), Kyungmin Lee (Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Class of 2020), Sumin Lee (Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Class of 2020), and Haeun Jung (Department of Industrial Design, Class of 2020)?also attended the awards ceremony held in Cannes, France, on June 16 (local time).

Cannes Lions, held every June in Cannes, France, is considered the most prestigious advertising festival in the world and is often referred to as the Olympics of the advertising industry. Among the world's three major advertising festivals?including the Clio Awards and the New York Festivals?Cannes Lions is regarded as the most authoritative.

The Cannes Future Lions, a global competition for university students held alongside the main festival since 2005, selects only four teams from over 1,000 entries without category distinction, underscoring its prestige.

This award is drawing even more attention as it is the first case in Korea to be achieved through a regular university curriculum. The students formed a team and worked on their project during the second semester of last year in the 'International Advertising' course taught by Professor Jangho Moon of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Sookmyung Women's University. This course is notable for being a capstone design class that emphasizes hands-on projects rather than theory-based learning.

The winning entry, 'Text Layer,' is a visual aid device designed for users with visual dyslexia, a condition affecting more than one in ten people worldwide. Existing solutions, such as complementary color filters, work by blocking specific light that causes visual distortion. However, these filters also tint all media, including photos and videos, making it impossible to fully enjoy content.

In contrast, 'Text Layer' utilizes eye-tracking technology based on Apple iOS to identify customized colors that enhance the user's reading ability and automatically adjust the background color of the screen. This simple yet creative approach?moving the filter position only behind the background?addressed a social issue in an innovative way and captured the judges' attention.

This year, Sookmyung Women's University achieved a grand slam in the advertising industry by winning awards at all five of the world's top international advertising festivals, including the Cannes Future Lions. Following its ranking as the second-best Asian university last year, the university has once again demonstrated its capabilities on the global stage.

Professor Jangho Moon of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Sookmyung Women's University said, "Sookmyung Women's University students have now joined the ranks of creative student leaders at the world's largest advertising festival. This award serves as evidence that Sookmyung Women's University's creative educational programs, as well as the capabilities of its faculty and students, meet global standards."