SHE'S smarter than most - Marie Taylor, a graphic design student at York College, has won the £250 first prize in a design project for the Smart car, sponsored by the motor retailer Smart of York.

Marie, who comes from Leyburn, is one of 23 students who took part in the competition. The group is in the final year of a two-year HND course at the college.

The challenge was to come up with innovative ideas for marketing Smart, which is among the top three growth brands in the UK car market.

Judging the entries were national sales manager Simon Rogers and Mark Tomlinson, general sales manager at Smart of York, which is located at the Mercedes-Benz showroom at Clifton Moor.

The judges' criteria were creativity and originality, execution of the idea, practicality in implementation and communication of the key Smart brand messages.

Marie's entry - a series of mail shots linked to fashion seasons - strongly reflected the mood of Smart, said Mr Tomlinson.

The imagery was also continued on a range of key fob giveaways, and both ideas, he said, were "very practical and could be used at retail outlets and other venues such as exhibitions.

Mr Rogers praised all the students for their high-quality ideas.

These included exciting designs for press advertisements, banners, mail shots, give-aways and showroom layout.

"Many were of the same high creative standard that you would expect from a professional agency and we shall be giving serious thought to incorporating some of the ideas in future campaigns. One group even produced a promotional video which had terrific impact."

The £150 runners-up prize went to Jonathan King from Selby and Andy Jones from York. Mike Davies and Gavin Brearley - both from York - shared the £100 third prize.

Updated: 09:06 Monday, May 17, 2004