The 17-year-old from Tanunda has won the junior design category in the National Talent Competition.

He was also named the winner of the People’s Choice Award in his group.

The Herald reported earlier this month that Stephen had been named a finalist in the competition.

The National Talent Competition, which is run in conjunction with National Youth Week, challenges people aged 12 to 25 to showcase their skills in the areas of writing, short film, photography, music and design. Stephen said he just missed out on entering the 2010 competition so he was determined to give it a go this year.

And when the opportunity arose, he fired up his computer to create his artwork.

“You had to design to the theme ‘Headspace’ because it is a company that is all about depression and helping people who are depressed…so I just made a design around that sort of theme about my personal headspace,” he said.

“It’s a few mountains in the back and then the words ‘this is my headspace’ and it’s got a few colours, circles of colour, and the words are a bit disjointed so I guess the personal reflection…is like the mountains are like my goals, what I’m striving towards, and then the colour is the exciting stuff in life that I really look forward to and focus on.”

For his efforts, Stephen won an iPad and a $3000 voucher.

The Faith Lutheran School Year 12 student said he is considering pursuing design and information technology as a future career path.

“I have a few different directions I’m looking at but design and IT is definitely one of the things I’m looking at,” he said.

“You see these cool images and actually knowing that you can create them, especially through IT, everyone can be an artist really.”

More than 2000 young people entered the National Talent Competition.