The awards were presented in Johannesburg on Youth Day, 16 June 2009.

The theme of the Design Achievers Award was Hands-on, Minds-on, Hearts-on. It is with this in mind that the award was presented for Melck’s human interest Green Light Project - a proposal that attempted to confront and eradicate poverty within the homeless community. It is of significance to mention that the judges commented on Alexander’s sincerity and humility that transcended from his well prepared proposal. They classified him as one of the students who had an active involvement with his target audience – the homeless community of the Tshwane region. Ms Fatima Cassim, fourth year Information Design subject coordinator at UP, said: "Alex is a proactive and engaged student yet he remains very modest. His award is therefore well deserved and I am pleased that he has received recognition for his community engagement activities. The quality of research presented by Alex was also of a high standard which reflects positively on both the Department of Visual Arts and the University."

"Design Achievers was an eye opening experience for me in many ways. Not only did it give me the opportunity to meet like-minded people and expose me to the design industry as a whole, it also instilled confidence in my own abilities. The Awards experience also made me increasingly aware of our South African social-cultural dynamics with its unique opportunities and problems. It was a tremendous privilege winning a prize and more importantly being part of the Awards scheme. Without doubt, I am sure that the experience is going to help me shape my future as a designer, " says Melck.

25 design students from different design disciplines took part in this year’s Design Achievers Award Scheme. The scheme aims to develop design leadership amongst young designers and has been presented since 1987. Nominations were invited from all tertiary design institutions in South Africa. It is also worth mentioning that this year eight design students from other African countries were also included in the preceding workshops.

Ntibile Seth Zonke, a fourth year Visual Communication Design student from the University of Stellenbosch won this year’s Design Achievers Award. The Faculty would also like to congratulate him for his efforts. To date, UP's Department of Visual Arts' students have performed extremely well in the Design Achievers Awards Scheme. Previous winners include: Jacques Lange (1988), Monty Filter (1992), Robert Braune (1996), Emma van Niekerk (2000), Braam de Klerk (2007) and Sidhika Sooklal (2008); runners up include Gustav Greffrath (2002) and Nick Hlozek (2003). 

Alexander and his father, Prof Antony Melck