Adobe Certified Professional Malaysia Champion Heads to Florida for World Championship

Lee Sin Yin’s effort and creativity paid off this year, as she rose from fifth place last year to National Champion in the 2023 Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) Malaysia National Championship, and she is heading to ACP World Championship in Orlando, Florida, USA next month.

From left: Lee Sin Yin and her mentor, Ms. Aida Zamnah Zainal Abidin, show the artwork, trophies, and certificates as tickets to participate in the ACP World Championship Grand Finale.

Lee Sin Yin, a Multimedia Technology student at Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU), will represent Malaysia at the Certiport’s Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) World Championship in Orlando, Florida, United States of America (USA) held from 30 July to 2 August 2023.

The ACP World Championship is an annual global design competition that tests students’ design skills using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

Sin Yin will be competing for the first prize award of RM36,900 aside from the championship trophy. Her success in the Malaysia National Championship came on the heels of 5th place in last year’s competition.

Her incredible journey started with creating a design poster entitled ‘Living In The Present Finding Joy In Life’ to gain more awareness as well as to attract more volunteers, donations, and support for Penang Dementia Association.

She competed against over 1,000 other outstanding artworks in this year’s first-round artwork submission and went through live test design in the second round to make into the Top 30 finalists.

All along, she reminded herself to embrace the process, have fun, and immerse herself in the thrill of planning and creating her artwork Although the theme was difficult for her, she sees it as an opportunity to unleash her creativity and showcase her unique creative style.

From left: Ms. Jeanne Chia Pui Ling (mentor for) Feivel Aiden (10th place), Lee Sin Yin, Ho Yuan Yun (among Top 30 finalists), and Ms. Aida Zamnah Zainal Abidin posed with their artwork and certificates.

She was both nervous and excited when the emcee announced her as the champion during the ACP Malaysia National Championship 2023 grand finale on 1st June 2023.

“I am grateful and glad that I was able to win the Malaysia National Championship since I never imagined myself as the winner of this competition. It is a great honour, as well as an overwhelming and memorable experience,” she said.

ACP Malaysia National Championship 2023, organised by Creative Cloud Community, serves as a platform for students majoring in Art & Design to showcase their work on a larger scale, while also offering up various opportunities for them, such as job placement.

“Throughout the entire journey, I had difficulties and had doubts about myself. There was a lot of pressure to create something remarkable and stand out among other talented designers.

“However, these difficulties and challenges made me stronger. I learned to trust my intuition, value the trip than the destination, and to enjoy the creative process all the way through this incredible journey, I also received a lot of support and motivation from a lot of people who deserve my deepest gratitude,” she explains.

As Champion, Sin Yin received a sponsored trip to Orlando, Florida, USA, worth over RM18,000.

She would like to thank her family, friends, classmates, APU staff, and lecturers, especially her mentor, Ms. Aida Zamnah Zainal Abidin, for recommending this competition, which provided her with the opportunity to learn a lot of new things from other talented people, enhance her design skills, and unleash her creativity, and to everyone for supporting and voting for her artworks during the ACP Malaysia National Championship 2023 grand finale.

Besides, APU students Sin Yin; Feivel Aiden (Digital Advertising), and Ho Yuan Yun (Multimedia Technology) were among the Top 10 (10th place) and Top 30 finalists this year, and we hope that many more APU students will compete in the ACP Malaysia National Championship next year.