Origumi aims to help neurodiverse teenagers
An idea to transform chewing gum wrappers into a fold-up coping device for neurodiverse teenagers has earned industry recognition for three Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) students.
Caitlin Christina Borst, Ewan Bell and Sana Ziyaeen’s project, Origumi, has been named among the winners of this year’s D&AD New Blood Awards – a notable honour for emerging creatives.
The MSc Creative Advertising students are among those displaying their work at the 2025 Degree Show, which is open to the public at ENU’s Merchiston campus until Friday 6 June.
Responding to a brief from the chewing gum giant Extra, the trio designed a series of special wrappers for strip gums, with folding lines to help create origami-inspired paper creations.
Their campaign is aimed at young neurodiverse people, many of whom use fidgeting and stimming to help manage stress and anxiety. It combines unique packaging, out of home billboard adverts and a social media strategy.
Being recognised by D&AD, the leading industry organisation for the UK creative industry, came as a very welcome surprise to the team.
Sana, who is 24 and from Iran, said: “It’s crazy! I remember opening the email and still not quite believing it.
“It was an amazing feeling!”
24-year-old Ewan, who is from Aberdeen, added: “I was actually getting my hair cut at the time! I looked at my phone afterwards and it was going wild!
“When we all met up afterwards, we jumped about like kids!”
The Origumi team will find out which level of D&AD New Blood pencil they have won during an award ceremony in London in July.
They have put this success down to a rewarding year on the MSc course, which they hope will help to launch their career in advertising – as it has done for many predecessors.
Caitlin, 25, from Livingston, said: “It is a massive confidence boost to know that we’ve developed these skills which can be used in the industry.
“I think throughout the year we’ve all learned a lot from each other.”
“It feels like we’ve come a long way very quickly,” added Sana.
“We all have quite different backgrounds in terms of what we were doing before – which has really helped.”
Caitlin, Ewan and Sana have also followed in the footsteps of previous ENU Creative Advertising students Brianna Price and Mairi MacRae, whose Heineken Stim project drew on similar ideas, and was also recognised by D&AD in 2023.
The trio sought out their advice while developing Origumi.
“The fact that we have had industry professionals coming in has been so helpful,” said Ewan. “Having the help of predecessors has been really nice.
“I like that the course teaches you about the structure of a campaign. I feel a lot more equipped to take that out into work.”
Caitlin said: “We learned a lot about neurodivergence when putting this together. We noticed we were involuntarily fidgeting and stimming while discussing ways to take away the stigma.
“The project took a lot of different turns along the way, but I think we’re all pleased with where it has ended up.”
You can see Origumi and other work from across ENU’s School of Arts & Creative Industries at the 2025 Degree Show.
The week-long celebration of undergraduate and postgraduate students is free to attend and open to all until Friday 6 June – find out more about it here.
