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Newcastle University students have won a business competition which will see their greeting card designs go on sale to the public.

The three students 鈥� Hemma Ahluwalia, Aki Lunn and Erica Lopez 鈥� were on the winning team of a Business Consultancy Challenge set by Hallmark 海角视频/ROI.

Pitching their ideas to a panel of Hallmark representatives, as part of a skills development exercise with the university鈥檚 Career Insights Programme, the undergraduates impressed the judges with their greeting card project ideas, based on proverbs from around the world.

Now the greeting card giant is working with the winning team to turn their ideas into eight new card designs 鈥� but we鈥檒l have to wait until September to see the results.

Hallmark鈥檚 challenge to students was to produce ideas that would help the company reflect and represent the diversity of our population. The company鈥檚 writing studio has been working with the students through the entire creative process and will be paying them for their work.

Ms Ahluwalia, 20, from Horsham in Sussex, said: 鈥淚 am studying sport and exercise science, so I had minimal, if any knowledge in this sector. Not only have I gained insight into employers鈥� perspectives, but I worked alongside students who come from very different subject areas."

Modern Languages undergraduate, Ms Lopez, 19, from Hartlepool, added: 鈥淔or me, world proverbs were the perfect idea to showcase our own cultural backgrounds and also other under-represented backgrounds. Through our research we found that there is a worrying issue regarding a lack of diversity through cards or in the card industry in general and through personal experience, I can attest to that.

鈥淎s a group, we are very culturally diverse, and we wanted the designs to somehow represent us, what we stand for as people of colour, and the beauty of different cultures, so what better way to showcase that than through words. I hope that the cards and the designs resonate with everyone no matter their ethnic backgrounds and serve as a door for the industry to create more space for people of colour to be seen and heard.

鈥淭he challenge has certainly opened my eyes to all sorts of possibilities regarding my future career progression. I always thought that with my degree I should only stay in that lane however this challenge made me realise I have more to offer and this has been a one-of-a-kind experience that I hope will certainly give me a boost in the future.鈥�

Ruth Turner-Blood, writing studio director for Hallmark 海角视频/ROI, said: 鈥淭o work with such engaged, hardworking and talented students was an honour and we were so impressed with the response to our brief. Hemma, Aki and Erica鈥檚 World Proverbs project showed great insight, passion and creativity, and it completely aligned with Hallmark 海角视频/ROI鈥檚 commitment to represent more diverse communities and cultures in our cards.

"We are delighted that they could work with us further to bring their ideas to life as a published card range.鈥�

Since its inception in 2015 Newcastle鈥檚 Career Insights Programme has been the institution鈥檚 flagship extra-curricular, employability support programme for undergraduate students from under-represented groups in higher education.

The programme connects students with employers from a range of sectors, exposes them to different career paths, helps them explore their options and provides opportunities to enhance their enterprise and employability skills through experiential learning.