DMU designers triumph in national competition

A team of students from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) has won first prize in a contest to find the UK’s best new designers.

The British Institute of Interior Design (BIID) challenged teams from universities around the country to work against the clock to prepare a design proposal from scratch and present it to a team of industry judges.



This year the brief focused on the decline of radio. Students had six hours to design the new HQ for a youth radio station. It had to be dynamic, accessible and acoustically sound, have a strong brand and a space that could be used in different ways.

Teams chosen to take part included students from Plymouth College of Art, the University of Wolverhampton, University of Lincoln, University of Huddersfield and the University of Bedfordshire. It is the second year running that the DMU team has won the BIID challenge.

Stuart Wright, senior lecturer in DMU’s School of Design, said: “We had an exception group of talented individual design students who pulled together as a fantastic team. The team’s response to the exciting brief pushed each student to work hard and excel across the day.

“The final 5 minute presentation engaged the Judges by showing depth, understanding, originality and creativity. This was all done under the excellent guidance of their professional mentor for the day, Lester Bennett.

“This is the second year in succession our DMU Interior Design students have won this challenge. As one of their tutors it give me immense pride to see this recognition for the hard work and dedication our students have put into their studies and for this to be recognised by their professional body the BIID.

“Well done to all Khia Lemart, Gao Pengjunyuan, Youna Choi, Christiana Andreou, Zuzanna Lubera and Amy Marsh.”

Returning for its fourth consecutive year, the Student Design Challenge is open to all final year Interior Design and Interior Architecture students in the UK. It aims to encourage collaborative work, promote creative thinking and inspire students looking to progress in the design industry.

Thirty-six students from six Interior Design and Interior Architecture courses across the UK were nominated by their course leaders and invited to take part in the event.   

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To provide the students with valuable guidance and advice throughout the design process, each team was assigned a BIID mentor, a practising interior designer with professional knowledge gained from working in the industry.

This year the mentors included BIID members Susie Rumbold, May Fawzy, Gwendoline Alderton, Matt Freeman, Charles Leon and Lester Bennett.
 
Judges admired the thoughtful brand identity created by the DMU students which showed great consideration of the brief. They praised the way in which students thought about interactive elements, made use of the space available and created an inventive and exciting proposal with well thought out layouts, storage solutions, interactive outside elements, and QR code technology.  

Gilly Craft, President of the BIID, said: “I was so impressed at the high quality of work the students presented this year. The BIID is dedicated to supporting up-and-coming designers as they begin their careers and The Student Design Challenge is the perfect opportunity to discover new talent and provide students with invaluable industry advice.”