ITE students inject their creativity into Wisma Atria's Christmas decorations

This article was contributed by the Institute of Technical Education (ITE).

For Cedric Lim, Chak An Qi, and Malcolm Xiong, the Christmas decoration at Wisma Atria this year is special. It is after all, a product of their hard work and creative ideas. 

The three aspiring designers were part of 110 Higher Nitec in Visual Merchandising students who had the opportunity to conceptualise design proposals for Wisma Atria’s Christmas decoration this year, under an inaugural collaboration between ITE and Wisma Atria. They were given a working theme, “The Season of Giving”, and encouraged to draw inspiration from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” for their designs.

The proposals of Cedric, An Qi, and Malcolm were selected by Wisma Atria as the winning designs – coming in first, second and third place respectively. Key elements of their proposals were integrated into the final decoration at Wisma Atria, which was launched by Minister of State for Education and Manpower, Ms Gan Siow Huang, on 19 November 2021. At the light-up ceremony, YTL Starhill Global REIT – which manages Wisma Atria – also presented a donation of $8,000 to the ITE Endowment Fund to support needy ITE students.

For the three winning students, the experience has been eye-opening and fulfilling.

“This was my first time working on a real-world design project. I believe it will boost my portfolio and goal of venturing into a design career. Seeing parts of my work on display gives me a big sense of accomplishment. I will be bringing my family and friends to check out the decoration!” said Cedric.

“I had fun in this project. There were also many practical considerations that I learned to take note of. For example, having a design with clear details that can be seen from afar so that it prevents people from crowding around it, and not adding items that will be too heavy to be supported,” said An Qi.

“I am excited to see parts of my design on display at Wisma Atria. Since I was young, I have always wished for my work to be displayed in public, so this is like a dream come true!” said Malcolm.