Dressed in their best, their faces beaming with a gleeful smile which added much more to their ensemble, graduating students of Pearl Academy celebrated the most memorable moment of their life.

After all, their talent for designing and the illustrations on which they had been working on for years, was being displayed for their parents, kith and  kin to see and appreciate, at their graduating event ‘Portfolio’, held at Pragati Maidan recently.

Standing with a sense of pride beside their individual projects, students took time to explain about it to interested visitors. With Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ song playing in the backdrop of the video, Nikki Ajmera, final year student of Communication Design who created it explains the reason behind her project,  ‘Because I Can’  which talks about alcoholics.

“It is a short-stop motion film on how to fight with excessive alcoholic consumption. I attended sessions where I found people who were hardcore alcoholics, since the last 14 years  were facing difficulties while trying to get rid of their boozing habit,” says Nikki, whose project won her two awards – Best academic performance and spirit of leadership.

A social cause touched Ridhima Gupta too. With the help of her camera, she captured the unique bonding of slum children with Bollywood.

“Popular Hindi dialogues are on their tongues. I captured their emotions while they were delivering dialogues from films like Dabangg, Sholay and Rockstar,” says Ridhima, who has created albums and posters of these children in different colours like sepia and mute tones.

Simran Nanda presented the concept of using discarded cardboard boxes creatively. She decorated the box with caricatures and made lamps out of it. “These items are made specifically for kids.

Keeping safety in mind, these lamps are battery operated,” says Simran. She also uses her creativity in illustrations and has designed a pocket-size booklet guiding and making young children aware about their responsibility towards environment.

Showcasing the vision of the students in textile designing, a colourful array of outfits designed by the students was also presented. In this section, Jigyasa Jolly showcased her collection of knitted gowns. “My idea was to use single material i.e. acrylic wool to design the entire outfit. Keeping the ‘umbrella’ theme in my mind, outfits are categorised under different sections like crochet, machine knitting and creating silhouette fall in limited frame,” says Jigyasa.

On the other hand, Nikita Ahuja’s work was dominated by the intricate designs of Jain Swetambar Temple in Chandni Chowk. She used these traditional designs on western silhouette. Another student, Parineeti Bagga presented a series of embroidered posters on silk and georgette fabric.  Also, there were students whose collections were inspired by renowned fashion designers like Manish Arora.  

The foundation year students also presented their projects and graduating students from Communication Design, Textile Design, Fashion Styling and Design and Interior were awarded for their creations. Industry leaders David Abraham, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Payal Pratap Singh and Nikhil Mehra were present to distribute the awards.

Sharad Mehra, CEO, Pearl Academy, said, “Portfolio 2014 has been an enthralling experience, with students from across batches exceeding expectations and exhibiting expertise beyond their years. The kind of skill displayed by students is a result of their and their mentors’ hard work and diligence.”