A RETAIL window display designer who started turning heads whilst studying at St Augustine's sixth form in Redditch has been nominated for a prestigious award.

Daniel Swanepoel, aged 24, has been shortlisted in Creativepool’s Top 25 Newcomers of Year and is now competing for the People’s Choice Award.

Mr Swanpoel, who attended St Augustine's between 2008 and 2010, previously featured in the Advertiser when he designed a sculpture to celebrate the school's first three years as a science college.

Speaking on the nomination, Mr Swanepoel said: "It was really special because it is all my own personal work that is being judged.

"They approached me, so they must have found my work online. It was really unexpected, so I’m really proud."

He graduated from London’s Fashion Retail Academy in 2014 with a distinction in visual display and retail branding, and scooped the academy’s FRA Commitment Award, which was presented to him by BBC Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw.

"I had been selected out of 800 enthusiastic fashion students at the Academy," he said.

"This is when I realised that there was no turning back.

"I had discovered and displayed a unique talent for designing window displays."

In 2014, Mr Swanepoel represented the UK as the team leader at the Future Retail Challenge for the World Retail Congress in Paris.

Recently he was headhunted and now working and designing at Harlequin Design in London, a leading retail display design agency.

To vote for Mr Swanepoel visit creativepool.com/awards/shortlist.