Design Stars!

I can finally share with you the Design Stars competition winners & nominees!

As you know I've been back to Liverpool a fair bit over the last six months as I was asked to lead the new surface pattern category for the 2011 Design Stars challenge. This involved writing briefs, delivering workshops & talks & visiting many schools with the Liverpool area. I also had to judge the huge amount of entries we received (which was very hard & a bit overwhelming) & select the 1st, 2nd & 3rd prize winners & nominees. We also held a screen printing masterclass weekend too where all of the nominees took part.

There was a lovely awards ceremony too where I got to present my category awards, it's all been great fun & I've loved every minute of it! So a huge thank to the Design Initiative they really are a inspiring organisation & have been a pleasure to work with. I feel very honoured to have been a part of it.

And the SURFACE PATTERN DESIGN CATEGORY WINNER IS...

1st place went to CORINNE MALONE, age15, Holly Lodge Girls’ College. I just adored Corrine's design & complimentary print as it instantly caught my eye. Her edgy colour palette & unique style worked really well & the designs were really fresh & contemporary. Corrine also had her own distinct style & her supporting artwork & sketches reflected her natural talent for surface design.


Well done Corrine!:)

In 2nd place ABBIE DUTY, age14, Broughton Hall High & in 3rd place HANNAH MACKENZIE, age 15, Holly Lodge Girls’ College.

I just loved Abi's striking silhouettes & cool colour palette. I thought she had great clean commercial style too (image above)

Abi is just age 14! Wow!

I thought Hannah's design (above) was bright, fun & quirky. It was really refreshing to see a different approach & choice of subject matter.  I thought she had a distinct style & I loved her fun sketchbook too!

Well done to all of our three prizewinners! I was super impressed by their designs & standard of work. They all had great sketchbooks & thorough research too (which was all required as part of the brief)

First prizewinners received an iPod Nano, second places won either an iPod Shuffle or Gamstation vouchers, and all third placed entrants were awarded Top Shop vouchers.

All 38 nominees received certificates of achievement in recognition of their hard work and great designs.

An exhibition of all the winners and nominees will be on display at the Design Show at St George’s Hall, as part of Liverpool Design Festival, from 6th to 9th October 2011. The next Design Stars competition will also be launched during the Festival.

For more information on the surface design brief, the Design Stars competition or the Design Initiative you can visit any of the three following pages:

http://www.liverpooldesignfestival.com/designstars/surface-pattern-category

http://www.liverpooldesignfestival.com/designstars/

http://www.designinit.org.uk/

Colour!

Last week I was back in Liverpool for the #DesignStars ceremony (as I was presenting a few awards, more on that to come this week) I quickly popped into the huge sale at Topshop too! Whilst in store, I spotted a gorgeous display of colour & thought it was beautiful & would actually make a great piece of art for the home too!

(I'm a queen of multi tasking:) I always find little pockets of inspiration everywhere I go.

Design Stars!

So last week I went back to Liverpool to judge all of the Design Stars  entries for the surface pattern category. It was a long day & it was really tough... (as the standard was really high) but I loved every minute of it. I was really overwhelmed by the response & high volume of entries we received!

So a huge thank you to the Liverpool designinit.org.uk for inviting me to run the surface design area of the competition it has been great fun & really rewarding too! A huge thank you to all of the schools that entered & the staff support I received, not to mention all of the fab work the students put in!

We did pick our top three! Along with our final nominees for the masterclass weekend. I can't announce the winner yet... but I'll post it on the blog as soon as I can. I LOVED the winning entry (the student really had a great style, natural talent & a great eye for design) so I'm very excited about sharing the student's work with you.

 

Week of workshops!

This week I'm off back to Liverpool to start teaching my surface pattern workshops for the Design Stars competition. I really excited & really looking forward to the challenge! I'll update the blog when I'm back & let you know how I got on with part one of the workshops. So this week I'm handing over the blog to the lovely Moni as she will posting daily & has lots of lovely inspirational stuff to share.

Have a great week everyone! :)

For more information about the project, please visit the website

Design Stars!

I'm super excited to announce that I've been booked on the judging panel for the 2011 Design Stars challenge organised by the wonderful Design Initiative. I'll also be running lots of workshops along with holding a print masterclass weekend.

Design Stars is funded by Liverpool City Council & the Arts Council & has a number of great sponsors. It really is a great opportunity to develop & nourish young talent.

Here's some further information:

Developing the design stars of tomorrow...

Design Stars is a project by Design Initiative for young people aged 11 to 16 years old.

Open to all secondary schools in Liverpool, the competition seeks to nurture and encourage young local design talent in its early stages, and is free to enter.

Following on from last year’s success we are delighted to be back with three top designers to bring you three NEW exciting competition categories to enter:

• Product Design: in association with ReThinkthings
• Surface Pattern Design: in association with Rachael Taylor Designs
• Video Games Design: in association with International Hobo

All three design teams will be offering their support and guidance throughout the competition, from setting the briefs, delivering workshops in schools to judging the entries and running winners’ master-classes.

I feel very honoured to be running the Surface Pattern Category & I'm really looking forward to getting started in the new year.

 

For more information or to download the brief click here