CSD STUDENT AWARDS 2004
Female design students won five of the six categories at the 1st Annual Chartered Society of Designers Student Awards.
The competition covers six disciplines including interiors, exhibitions, product and graphic design.
More than 200 entries were received from design students in the UK and winners were awarded cash prizes of £1000 and a CSD student medal.
Frank Peters, Chief Executive of CSD, thinks the strong female presence in the awards has significant implications for the design industry:
"This is a serious wake-up call for us guys. It will now determine a different agenda in design practice. Standards of professional practice are certain to be raised as a result of a greater female input into the design industry and this is an outcome CSD welcomes".
The only male winner, Zheng Zheng, who is studying product design at Central St Martins College of Art and Design, won the product design award category for his cable pasta idea - a safe way of keeping electrical cables tidy.
Judges praised the simplicity and ingenuity of the design. Zheng says his aim was to design 'an eye-catching, easy-to-use product' that could be cheaply produced.
Rebekah Hieronymus, studying interior architecture at Napier University, Edinburgh, impressed the judges with her winning interior design for a temporary bar venue at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Hieronymus uses the name of the venue, Aurora Nova, by drawing onthe aurora borealis as her inspiration for a design based around light and form.
An in-store concept for Pret A Manger won Pauline Walsh the award for graphics. Walsh, currently studying graphic design at the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, uses the themes of seasonality in her concept.
The judges praised her creativity and thorough research: " This is a mature, professional solution that takes the brand forward into new areas", commented judge Bob Hewson MCSD, managing director of RWH Design Consultants, Northamptonshire.
