A Welwyn Garden City art student scooped top prize in a competition designed to boost career chances for aspiring graphic designers.

Welwyn Hatfield Times: Milly McAlister's winning card. Picture: TouchNoteMilly McAlister's winning card. Picture: TouchNote (Image: Archant)

London art and design school, Central Saint Martins, teamed up with card sending app TouchNote to launch the competition, which saw more than 100 of the country's top students tasked with creating greeting cards for the app's 'everyday moments' range.

Welwyn Garden City's Milly McAlister, 19, was one of three to triumph - with judges hailing the winners' work as "exceptional" - and they now have their designs available to buy on TouchNote.

Outlining her inspiration, she said: "Children's book illustrators and graphic novelists such as Jamie Hewlett, however the list is endless!

"I take inspiration from films, advertisements, music and so on. It's amazing how some of the best ideas I've had have come from some of the most obscure places - or when I'm in the shower."

TouchNote enables users to send custom-made cards using their own photos, stickers, stock images and illustrations. The app's creative director, Jesse Boyce, mentored the students and helped them refine their ideas in weekly workshops during a month-long program.

Milly also landed a paid internship with the app, as did the other winners Yolande Mutale, 21, from Brighton, and 20-year-old Diandra Elmira Putri, originally from Jakarta, Indonesia.

The 19-year-old continued: "I can't thank TouchNote enough for the opportunity. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and now I'm ready to send my body weight in postcards!"

TouchNote CEO Dan Ziv said: "We wanted to provide a credible platform for the stars of tomorrow to show off their work and be paid for their work with us. "We were hugely impressed with the quality and creativity of the work presented by the CSM students.

"For such a young group they came up with some really original life events outside of the usual milestones that most cards celebrate."

He added: "These are really clever designs which inspire people to think more broadly about what an occasion is and how cards are a more personal way to communicate in a world swamped with social media. These young artists are helping us offer unique artwork to our TouchNote members."