Design Ventura 2023-24 Celebration Event
On Thursday 25 April 2024, welcomed the top ten shortlisted schools who submitted this year to the Design Museum for a day of celebration. We also unveiled the Design Ventura 2023-24 display on the mezzanine – make sure you come and visit while it’s up.
Elysia Thorpe, Programme Manager for Design Ventura, kicked us off by inviting our industry insights speakers – Laura Lebeau, industrial designer at Map Project Office, and Neil Onions, founding director of Beyond the Box – to join her onstage and offer our student teams some guidance and encouragement drawn from their own experiences in the design industry. Students and teachers had the opportunity to ask Laura and Neil questions, before everyone took a break for some soft drinks, tea, and cake!
Next up, student teams were mixed together to take part in Sustainable Design workshops run by our expert Design Museum workshop facilitators, Anna Fearon and Cathy Meese. Sustainable Design workshops are available to book as part of our year-round schools offering and draw on a handling collection unique to the Design Museum, including materials displayed in our bestselling Waste Age: What can design do? exhibition.
Everyone took a break for lunch and explored the exhibitions, catching SKATEBOARD in its last weeks before closing as well as Enzo Mari, which opened the month before. After this came a Design Ventura favourite, speed networking. Students met professionals from all across the design and creative industries and varying career paths – find out more about them below.
Speed networking mentors
Avni Patel. Programme Manager for Young People at the Design Museum as well as Project Manager at Design Can.
Callie Tedder-Hares. Founding partner and Creative Director at Volume Creative and its bespoke waste solutions start-up, Spared.
Eliza Collin. MA Material Futures Grad and current Design Researcher in Residence 2023-24 with Future Observatory at the Design Museum.
Isabel Lea, former Design Researcher in Residence 2022-23 with Future Observatory. Works as a designer, creative director, and socio-cultural researcher.
Joel Phillimore. In-house designer at Alive and Kicking alongside his freelance work as a digital creative.
Josh Armitage. Artist, aiming to merge sensory experiences with diverse drawing and painting techniques, and lecturer.
Larry Botchway, co-founder of the POoR Collective. Trained as an architect, also works as a tutor and engagement specialist.
Malay Nagda. Head of UX/UI for Risk and Compliance at Deutsche Bank, with 15 years of experience in UX and design.
Sheana Yu. Social entrepreneur, mentor, and founder of Aergo Health.
Taran Wilkhu. Photographer with a particular focus on exploring the interaction between people and space in the built environment.
In the evening, the Design Museum opened its doors to the shortlisted school teams’ family and friends as well as Deutsche Bank employees, more design industry experts, the museum’s Learning team past and present, and other special VIP guests to celebrate the success of another year of Design Ventura.
The Awards
The Design Museum’s Director of Audiences, Josephine Chanter, welcomed all the schools and guests to the museum, followed by CEO and Director Tim Marlow and Christoph Woermann, Chief Marketing Officer of Corporate Bank Marketing at Deutsche Bank.
We were then joined by our judges from the Design Ventura Pitching Day in March, who took it in turn to announce the Design Ventura awards. This included Christoph as well as the Design Museum’s Senior Buying Manager Preena Patel; designer and entrepreneur Sebastian Conran; and of course our brief-setter for the year, textile and print designer Kangan Arora.
Outstanding Finalists
St Joseph’s Catholic High School with Emergency Cache
Dover Grammar School for Girls with OUTFITY
Comberton Village College with the Creative Colour Box
Commendation for packaging and visuals
Ferndown Upper School with Bouncy Buddies
Commendation for ingenuity of design
Manor CE Academy with S-C-R-A-P
Commendation for best presentation
Heathcote School with the Study Buddy
Commendation for most market-ready product
Christ the King Voluntary Catholic Academy with Road to Go
Third Place
Haggerston School with their Braille Calendar
Second Place
Upper Shirley High School with Dish of the Day
First Place
Piggott School with Colour Countdown – you’ll be seeing more of this one as we move into development and production ready for retail in the Design Museum Shop this winter!
Following the award ceremony, we unveiled our mezzanine display of all student-made prototypes from the top ten teams this year, alongside last year’s winning product Stack It! by The Piggott School (a different team of students, don’t worry!) as sold in the Design Museum Shop right now. The exhibition will run from until late June 2024 – find out more about visiting here.
A massive thank you to all judges and guests for attending for this very special event celebrating the achievements of the Design Ventura 2023-24 finalists, and as always thank you and well done to the students and to the teachers who continue to make Design Ventura special year after year.
All photos © Richard Heald Photography / the Design Museum