Design Ventura Shortlist 2020

We are pleased to announce the shortlisted entries for Design Ventura 2020.

Thank you to all the teachers and students who have worked so hard on this year’s project. The Covid-19 pandemic has made this a very challenging year, especially for teachers, students and schools. Despite these challenges, we have been incredibly impressed by the creativity and effort students have put into this year’s competition. This year we have a shortlist of seven state schools in the main competition to allow for social distancing at this year’s Celebration Event in June.

We had over 15,000 students participating this year, so our panel of shortlisting judges did not have an easy task. After much debate, the final top seven state school entries and top three schools in the International and Independent Category were selected – please see a full list in alphabetical order below.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

All schools that have submitted an entry for Design Ventura will receive feedback from our judges and will be sent participation certificates for their students by post – we will send these soon.

This year, all the shortlisted schools have been asked to submit a 3-minute pitch video to be reviewed by our pitching judges on 12 May. The top seven state schools will also attend a live Q&A session with the judges.

DESIGN VENTURA SHORTLIST 2020

(in alphabetical order)

County Upper School, Suffolk
Safari Matchimals
A set of flat pack safari animals with interchangeable body parts that can be coloured in and then mixed and matched to create new creatures.

Davison Church of England High School for Girls, West Sussex
Positivitree
A giftable plant in pyramidal packaging that is aimed at boosting mental wellbeing.

Ferndown Upper School, Dorset
‘Build & Play’ (Modernist House of Cards)
A pack of cards with iconic architectural designs on them which slot together to create new design structures.

Heckmondwike Grammar School, West Yorkshire
Sow Beautiful
A flower seed canon used to grow flowers and create a source of pollen for bees.

Parkside Community College, Cambridgeshire
The Shoe Button
A small gadget designed to help people learn how to tie their shoelaces.

The Burgess Hill Academy, West Sussex
Play Cube
A wooden play cube that contains toy cars and transforms into a road map play scene for young children.

Trinity School, Berkshire
Magic Leaf 
A leaf shaped device that lets you know if your plants need watering by changing colour from green to white.

INTERNATIONAL AND INDEPENDENT CATEGORY

Schools in this category will be contacted and will be asked to submit a three-minute video pitch. There will be an award day for this category in July.

(in alphabetical order)

Guildford High School
The Smart House Chart
A cardboard flat-pack house that can be assembled and decorated. It is intended as a reward chart for young children.

Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls
Bamboo Bauble
A set of customisable bauble decorations made from bamboo.

Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School
Figaros
A board game that encourages creativity through prompt cards which tell players an object (e.g rocket ship) they have to recreate out of the provided shapes. Like Pictionary but with shapes.