At a ceremony at Dublin’s Odeon Bar and Grill this evening, the House and Home Crafts Council of Ireland Student Design Awards 2011 came to an exciting close.
Now in its eighth year, the competition was established by House and Home magazine in 2004 to reward young Irish design talent. Dedicated to promoting commercial design as a viable career choice, each year students are invited to work to a brief to submit an interiors-related product that is contemporary, innovative, functional, affordable, commercial and suitable for commercial production.
This year’s open theme of ‘Home Comforts – where craft meets design’ prompted one of the competition’s biggest entry levels ever and saw submissions across the fields of furniture, ceramics, glass, lighting and textiles.
But there can be only one victor: the 2011 winner of House and Home Crafts Council of Ireland Student Design Award is Tom Sweeney, a student of GMIT Letterfrack, who came up with a scalable, modular design for wall-mounted, contemporary storage.
Of the winning design House and Home editor Dara Flynn said, “Tom’s mini storage system is a well-conceived idea and well made – visually it reminds me of a row of tiny balconies on a modernist building. It’s a really flexible idea with a number of different applications. What I saw as great for pens and thumbtacks, another judge pictured in the bathroom, or for storing tea in the kitchen!”
Two runners up also produced very strong products. Jens Kosak, a student at GMIT Letterfrack, who won the Student Design Award in 2009, was praised for his innovative bed design, which uses sustainable materials and requires no tools or fixings to construct.
Ceramic apprentice Rosie Naughton’s porcelain oil burner was also chosen by judges as worthy of particular praise.
Four more students who made it to the final stage of the competition take home ‘commended’ certificates for their work. Zoe Hartigan, from NCAD, produced a felted wool rug, Gerard Gunning, also NCAD, created digital wallpaper, a first for the competition, Katharine Griffith, GMIT Letterfrack, showcased a modular shelving system and Danielle Durkan from Colaiste Dhulaig produced a contemporary lighting piece.
This year, the carefully-chosen judging panel included Dunnes Stores head homewears buyer Teresa Rafter, ceramic designer and Dragons Den alumni Karen Morgan (who also won the award in 2006) as well as Jennie Flynn from Dublin product design store designist, Crafts Council of Ireland Education and Awareness Manager Louise Allen plus and House and Home magazine publisher Karen Hesse and editor Dara Flynn.
Pic credits: Paul Sherwood photography
