2005 News
Read past news stories from the School of Design Innovation's 2005 news archive.
2005 News
Future Flow at Methven
New Zealand shower and tapwear design company, Methven Limited, has accepted three Victoria students on a four-month internship starting in November 2005, with the intention of retaining one of them for a full two-year internship.
In August, seven students from the final year Industrial Design programme submitted visual portfolios along with written applications to Gary Nel, Head of Design at Methven Limited. The successful three pictured are: Kylie Baker, Joanna Lewis and Clark Bardsley. The final selection was made in February 2006 based on contributions, performance and achievements developing prototypes from concepts conceived by Tim Drake and Kylie as an output from a collaborative project with Methven.
The project is part of the Design Led Futures research initiative of Victoria’s School of Design and is funded by a Tertiary Education Commission Growth Pilot with co-funding from the industry partners Methven and Fisher & Paykel.
Methven is based in Avondale Auckland and has a design focused reputation in New Zealand’s shower and tapware market. Its design department has a multi-talented team including industrial designers, engineers and marketing experts working on new product development.
Victoria Industrial Designers Mixing With the ‘Best’
Victoria’s School of Design was well represented when prize winners for the 2005 New Zealand ‘Best Design Awards’ were announced at the annual event in Auckland.
The awards, presented by the Designers Institute of New Zealand, showcased and celebrated the most outstanding work that the New Zealand design industry had to offer. They included the disciplines of Graphic, Interior and Product Design.
The best student entry in the Product Category was awarded to a Victoria industrial design graduate, Rory Bladen for his Multiple Format Vehicle, a theoretical project for the homewear chain IKEA. Rory describes his prize-winning project as a new concept in vehicle customisation. “It allows the user to configure their car to suit both their needs and their lifestyle. The idea is that the prospective buyer would select a base/body ‘space’ and then proceed around the Ikea showroom selecting from different vehicle furnishings and accessories, just as they might if decorating or configuring their living room at home.”
Final year industrial design student Nick Rysenbry was the runner up in the same category winning highly commended for his lamp ‘Emaa’. Earlier this year Nick was named the ECC Lighting ‘Young Designer of the Year’ for the same project and travelled to Milan to work with the highly regarded Italian lighting manufacturer ‘Flos’. Rory’s project was supervised by Senior Lecturer Tim Miller and Mark Pennington, Design Director at Formway Furniture.
Peter Haythornthwaite, Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design to the Victoria School of Design and Director of Creativelab followed up the students’ success by taking not only the Best Consumer Product category but also the overall winner in the discipline, for his design of the Lomak or Laser Operated Mouse and Key Board for the physically disabled. Peter stresses that it is a true global product. “There are 20,000 candidates for the product in New Zealand alone, 100,000 in Australia and so on. It is an 'ideal' New Zealand product - combining inventiveness and empathy relating to need, our heritage in healthcare and personal well-being and clever technology, all levered to create a competitive niche product through design”. Peter is no stranger to the awards, adding this year’s to a long string of successes including the John Britten Award in 2003.
As if presence among the prize winners were not enough, Victoria’s School of Design was also represented on the jury by its Head of School, Professor Roy Fleetwood. Professor Fleetwood brings a welcome international perspective to the awards and is much in demand as a jury member for international design competitions such as the Red Dot awards for the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, one of the oldest and most highly reputed design institutions in Europe. Most recently he was invited to participate as a jury member for the prestigious Braun Prize in Germany in 2006.
International Design Studio Exhibition
The work of students who visited Japan late last year for an International Design Studio was celebrated at an exhibition at Te Aro Campus last week.
The International Design Studio 2004 Exhibition was opened by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Pat Walsh. The opening was attended by the Japanese Ambassador, HE Masaki Saito, and his wife, Mrs Makiko Saito, and Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast.
The International Design Studio took place in November and December 2004, as part of an initiative by the School of Design to establish an educational and cultural exchange programme in Japan.
The International Design Studio visited Kyoto, and the Kansai region of Japan; and Sakai City, Wellington’s sister city in Japan. The study locations were chosen to offer an intensive introduction to the culture of Japan and research opportunities in the disciplines of architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture and industrial design.
WOW Award Trophy Designed by Victoria Student
One of the top trophies at this year’s World of Wearing Art Show (WOW) was designed by a Victoria School of Design student. Wellington City Council’s Wellington International Award, awarded by Mayor Kerry Prendergast to the best international entry, was designed by third year student Zac Cox. This year, the winner of the Award was Bev Juno of Canada.
Zac completed the design during his third year of the Industrial Design programme and was approached by the Council to use the design for WOW after it won second place in the trophy design competition for the Absolutely Creatively Wellington Awards (first place went to Industrial Design student Damien Crook). In designing the award Zac captured the dynamic nature of ripples to express the notion of creative ideas interacting with each other and expanding their influence in ever increasing circles – a comment on the World of Wearable Art and its growth from local to increasingly global influence.
Meanwhile, another third year Industrial Design student, Jonathan Hewison, was highly commended in the Packaging Council of New Zealand’s Environmental Packaging Awards 2005 for his entry in the category Conceptual Design by a Tertiary Student. Jonathan’s packaging for high end electronic equipment utilised laser cut bamboo to fabricate a reusable container. The combination of the biodegradable natural material from a sustainable source and high technology processing that eliminated the need for adhesives impressed the judges.