Top tips from lead teacher of the 2010 winning team

Initially advertising for year 9 pupils to enter Design Ventura, Miss King, Head of Design and Technology, offered to “inspire them about the world of design and increase their interest in the subject”. Having sustained an enthusiastic response, the competition kick-started with some off-timetable sessions and a few meetings squeezed in over lunchtimes, nourished with plenty of biscuits and juice to help get the ideas flowing.

“Overall the students were very engaged in the project and with the visiting experts who came in to the school for the Hothouse sessions. They worked with the teams and explained about the finance, marketing and design elements.” By encouraging the pupils to consider themselves as both young designers and the target market, the students quickly began to develop ideas about what would sell in the Design Museum Shop.

Miss King had a difficult choice to make deciding which idea would progress in the competition, “I really had to consider what we were able to produce in school with the resources that we had available to us”. Taking into account the variety of products already available in the Design Museum Shop, it was concluded that the final submission must be “the most suitable product” and would show careful consideration of the target market, in addition to the issues of affordability and sustainability. Dove Bunting was eventually chosen as the winning product as it held “appeal to a range of ages” and was a memorable item. The Dove Bunting also had a unique selling point, a DIY element that “enabled the person buying it to make it personal to them”, this showed the young designers has shown consideration for the target market and researched current consumer trends. The “simple but very eye catching” packaging fitted well with the sustainability issues within the original design brief.

With a successful and professional performance at the Pitching Event in January Dove Bunting scooped the overall prize and is now in the initial stages of production in preparation for being stocked in the Design Museum shop this August.

“We were really delighted that the product was chosen as the winner of Design Ventura, and the team are now involved with developing the product for production and to sell in the museum shop. The school is very proud of the girls’ success and is celebrating their achievement in assemblies.”