Fundamental to the development of a design student is the ability to interact with the world around them. Design competitions are one way in which students get this opportunity.
Design Competitions provide a great platform for design students of all disciplines to become more confident in having their work viewed by others outside the university cohort. They allow for the student to get their design work out into the wider design community and force them to brush up on some of the skills they feel they might be lacking in. As well as forcing them to make sure the design concept entered into said competition is highly refined.
In 2008 the RMIT University Industrial Design Department, in collaboration with Melbourne based industrial design consultancy JONESCHIJOFF, set out to look at a new way of looking at how students can enter design competitions. In light of the vast array of competitions being held around the world, they created a studio to explore a different approach that involved a significant departure from the age old strategy of – the project is complete, now enter a competition. Thus the Design Competition Hothouse was born.
In Design Competition Hothouse the students were given the task of designing a strategy that would see them maximise the amount of competitions entered, even before any design work commenced. This allowed students to understand what competitions were about, why they were run and what pros and cons were associated.
In total 15 students participated in the studio and delivered over 90 entries to competition around the world. Many of these competitions are still in progress but the early signs are positive:
Lockwood – Winner
Wheels Young Designer (2008) –Finalist
Sebel – Finalist
Cormack Packaging – Top 30
Design Boom – shortlisted
In the near future you will be able to read some of their thoughts on design here at Design Droplets in our upcoming feature Studentz. In the mean time you can check out their award winning entries here.
You can also let us know what your thoughts on design competitions in the comments or through our in-post poll below.
[poll id="2"]
