Press Releases

Falmouth’s 3D Design students stand out from the crowd

Students from University College Falmouth’s well-established BA(Hons) 3D Design course continue to achieve success in national competitions such as Sustain Our Nation, an initiative of the Audi Design Foundation; the Royal Society of Arts’ (RSA) Design Directions awards; and the New Design Britain competition.

Third-year students, Liam Curtis and Jack Seal won the south regional final of the Audi Design Foundation’s Sustain Our Nation competition for their social enterprise initiative entitled freeflush. They received £10,000 in prize money in order to set up and develop freeflush following a fifteen-minute presentation to the jury and a fifteen-minute Q&A session held in Bristol.

Freeflush is a simple rainwater catchment system that allows rainwater to be used for toilet flushing. It provides 75% of water used in flushing and creates potential annual savings of more than 20,000 litres of water per household.

Jack Seal explains: "Water conservation is a major challenge. The South West has the highest water rates in the country. By utilising rainwater, we will be significantly reducing the water bills for many, initially in the South West but obviously, the initiative could expand to other parts of the country."

Audi UK’s Corporate Responsibility Manager, Rebecca Myrie, said:"We cannot believe that freeflush has not been thought of before! For us, it was essential that the winning enterprise met the 'triple bottom line' and the environmental, social and economic benefits for freeflush are more than obvious. The practical application of design to a real issue, coupled with Liam and Jack’s enthusiasm, proved a winning combination.”

The aim of the Audi Design Foundation’s Sustain Our Nation programme is to establish social enterprises with seed funding and regional business support. It aims to generate entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for graduate designers whilst boosting their service-design skills and knowledge. More information can be found at http://www.sustainournation.org/

"We were delighted to have five of the eight short listed projects in the regional final from Falmouth,” commented Senior Lecturer, Dr Yorick Benjamin. “Sustain Our Nation has been a great competition for us and we were one of the best represented design courses nationally. The emphasis on social innovation fitted well with the key themes that underpin our 3D Design course - design for sustainability and community needs. Freeflush is a great concept and Liam and Jack have the drive and skills to take it forward.”

Second-year student, Megan Lobb, has also impressed the jury of RSA Design Directions 2009/2010 with the high standard of her submission in the Design and Society Working Late category, and received a commendation for her work. This category of the prestigious RSA Design Directions awards scheme challenged entrants to develop ways in which different design-led approaches could enhance productive and healthy environments for the older workforce. Megan’s design was a programme called High Five that uses informative stickers to highlight potential places for simple but effective physical and mental exercises in the workplace to be used by workers on a daily basis.

The RSA brief was supported and inspired by the Dott Cornwall programme, established by the Design Council, Cornwall Council and University College Falmouth.

In addition, third-year student, James Cadogan, has won the Accessories Category at the New Design Britain Awards finals, held at the Birmingham NEC, for his Bamboolarule.
The Bamboolarule is a sustainably produced, vertically laminated bamboo ruler that arches off the desk and lies flat under light pressure. When not in use, the arc allows fingers underneath to pick it up or move with ease.

Only 16 product design finalists were selected from 150 original entries with applicants from over 80 universities. James received an offer of a work placement and a year’s free membership to ACID, Anti Copying in Design.

“The competition was good and I felt lucky to win,” said James. “My research into socially inclusive design, arthritis in particular, showed that a ruler was difficult for people to pick up, let alone the elderly and arthritic. The arc enables fingers to go underneath the ruler to pick it up without having to slide it to the edge of the table or scrambling at it with your nails.”

One of the judges, Damian Walton from the House of Fraser, highlighted the importance of students being forward-thinking, practical and clever whilst retaining a degree of simplicity in their designs.

Three further designs from BA(Hons) 3D design students have been selected from 82 entries from over 20 institutions for the finals of the Lighting Association’s national student Lighting Design Award 2010. The students have now been invited to turn their designs into the real thing and will present them at the final judging in July.

All finalists will also have the opportunity to exhibit at the industry's premier trade event - The Lighting Show. This provides finalists with unrivalled opportunity to present their designs to leading manufacturers and retailers from around the world, and as a result, many have gained employment within this fashion conscious industry.

“Our students are fortunate to have the invaluable opportunity of competing at national level and linking their study to work-related experience,” explained Course Leader of BA(Hons) 3D Design, Su Vernon. “Their ongoing success in such competitions demonstrates how the course at Falmouth prepares our students for creating real life solutions, getting good jobs and working in industry, and we are delighted by it.”

For further information about BA(Hons) 3D Design at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/3ddesign, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214354.

University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall – at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth’s expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington’s expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2013/2014 that will be unique to the South West.

The University College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

Ends

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email: jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk