Kingston University students help to market Vintage Classics Russians

Students at Kingston University have contributed towards a video marketing campaign for six titles in Vintage's "Classics Russians" collection. The collection, which includes Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, marks 100 years since the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Undergraduates on Kingston University's animation course were involved as part of a competition, asking six groups of students to each create a promotional animation for one of the six books, no more than one minute in length, drawing on the package designed by the publisher.

The prize sees the top three animations form part of the marketing campaign, in addition to respective honorariums of £1,000, £500 and £250 for first, second and third prize. 

Judging the prize was Suzanne Dean, creative director at Vintage, Matt Hunt, graphic designer at The Royal Academy of Arts, Frances Macmillan, senior editor at Vintage Classics, Mark Sinclair, deputy editor at Creative Review and Ruth Waldram, brand director at Vintage.

First place went to team Dr Zhivago, which Dean credited for its sophisticated use of texture and colour. "The silent snow scene at the end of the film just before the title was revealed, was brilliant," she said. The team was led by Flora Caulton, and included students Sarah Hingley, Kathrin Steinbacher, Emily Downe and Rose Woollett.

Second prize was awarded to team Life and Fate, directed by Katy Wang, produced with Jade Evansw, Ganna Voznyak and Hannah McNally, with judge Sinclair praising it as a "highly affecting piece of work". Third prize went to the team behind The Master And Margarita video for its "sense of anarchical humour". It was spearheaded by Maria Morris, with team members Billy Huntingdon, Luca Bowles, Denisa Costin and Elena Struleva. 

Waldram said: "We love working with the Kingston University undergraduate course and each year are blown away by their creativity, originality and professionalism. Their approach to the epic Russian stories was clever and inspired, they gave us a hard task in choosing a winner."

All six videos can now be viewed on the