Finishing up: How to complete your Design Ventura submission

We’re getting closer to the Design Ventura submission deadline of 26 February (5pm), so we wanted to lay out the submission process step-by-step, remind you where to find some valuable resources for the final stages of your project, and offer a few final top tips.

Remember…

Submitting teams should contain up to 6 students who may come from Years 9, 10, and/or 11.

We can only accept one main competition entry per school. If you have lots of students participating in the project and can’t decide whose to submit, we suggest running an in-school Pitching Day and having staff and/or students vote on their favourite product pitch to enter on behalf of the school.

Why should you submit?

• All participating students – not just those on the submitting team – will receive certificates of participation for completing the project.
• All submitting teams will receive specific, constructive feedback from our expert panel of judges, regardless of whether they are shortlisted or not.
• Incomplete entries will still receive feedback on what was turned in, so long as student and teacher evaluation forms are filled in.
• Shortlisted teams will join us for two days of fun, industry insights, and getting to meet their fellow young designers: the Pitching Day at Deutsche Bank’s London headquarters and the Celebration Event at the Design Museum.
• The winning team will work with a professional designer/design studio to develop and manufacture their product for sale in the real-life Design Museum Shop, with all proceeds going to the students’ chosen charity.

A complete entry must include:

• 3 x A3 sheets detailing your design process and final product (see tips on this below). If you submit more than 3 sheets, we will need to ask you to re-submit a shortened version and may not be able to accept your submission.
• Teacher evaluation form completed by teacher(s) running the project.
• Student evaluation forms completed by all participating students (not just the team who submit).
• Optional: budget template sheet, filled in and saved as a PDF. Even if you don’t submit this, it can help your students to better understand costing and ensure their product plan is realistic.
• Once you have all of the above, you are ready to fill in and submit your completed online form as detailed below.

We will not be able to accept your submission for consideration until you have completed the online form including A3 submission sheets and filled in both the teacher and student evaluations.

Completing your online entry form

1. Make sure that you’re logged in to your Design Ventura account. If you’ve forgotten your password, you can reset it here or email us. If you’re unsure of your login details or having any other issues, get in touch with us ventura@designmuseum.org.
2. The submitting student team should work with you to fill in the form, or give you the necessary information in advance: in this case we recommend that you ask them to fill in this practice entry form and give you details of cost price, retail price, and profit per product in advance.
3. Click on ‘Submit your entry’ on the Design Ventura website homepage, or via this link. Fill in all necessary fields using the information provided by your students.
4. Upload your document(s) (3xA3 sheets and optional budget sheet) via the link at the bottom of the form. Please ensure your school’s name is included in each file name.
5. Once you’re happy, click ‘Submit your entry’ at the bottom right! You should receive an automated email confirming submission, and we’ll be in touch a little later too, but if you’re worried it didn’t work please do email ventura@designmuseum.org to check in. Once you have submitted your entry you will not be able to change it, so check it carefully.

Further information: A3 submission sheets

Your three A3 submission sheets constitute the core of your submission and must be able to stand alone. We love seeing any additional videos, budget sheet, etc. but these cannot make up for deficiencies in the core submission sheets in the judging process.

They can be hand-drawn and scanned, created digitally, or some combination. They must not be more than 3 pages, or we may need to reject your submission! We advise that you follow this structure:

• Research and initial ideas. This could include moodboards and initial mind-maps, preliminary sketches, audience analysis or research, or existing product research.
• Idea development and refinement. This could include iterative prototypes*, CAD or simple 3D modelling with paper/clay, test user feedback, or SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).
• Final design. This should summarise and clearly communicate what your design is and how it meets the original Design Ventura brief. We recommend that you include detailed annotated images and/or photographs, and you may include a link to a video of the prototype in use if you wish.

* We love to see evidence of prototyping/modelling, so please do include photos of any part or whole prototypes made regardless of quality – remember that unsuccessful prototypes are part of the iterative design process!

Find examples of past A3 submission sheets on our Project Guide: Submitting & Finishing Up page.

File formats: PDF (preferably all three A3 sheets in one file) or JPEG. Maximum file size 12MB.

Useful links

What happens after you submit?

We’ll meet with our panel of expert judges to shortlist your submissions over the following week after submission, and will notify all shortlisted schools by 3 March, to be publicly announced 7 March. All submitting teams will receive feedback from our judges, whether you’re shortlisted or not!

If your school is shortlisted, we’ll get in touch with further information on the Pitching and Celebration Days. We aim to cover all expenses that may make it difficult for your students to be able to attend either day in person, so please don’t let potential cost deter you from entering the competition – we want to lower barriers to enjoying and excelling in design.