EMMA BYRNE, a graduate of Limerick RTC's School of Art and Design has won the title of Graduate Designer of the Year, presented annually by the Society of Designers in Ireland.

She was presented with her prize by the director general of RTE, Joe Barry, at a reception in Dublin last week.

Her Stories project consisted of reworkings of eight books based on the eight classic themes of narrative: love, pursuit, loss, success, quest, the fatal flaw, the love triangle and the deal with the devil.

"I basically wrote contemporary versions of the classics, relating to ordinary people's lives, and then visualised them," Byrne says.

The stands on which the books were displayed were made from sections of tree, so that the books appeared to be developing organically from the trees.

Byrne is now studying for her MA in the London Institute. Her final project will be based on a minority language in Wexford, known as Yola, and the local customs that have survived the language's de mise.