We hope you’re all back into the groove of things after half-term. We’re just finding time now to tell you about our last teacher CPD, which took place in-person at the Design Museum on Friday 1 November. First of all, thank you so much to everyone who came, choosing to spend a half-day of their holiday with us! We talked about how we can better embed sustainability in both design and teaching – a vital, critical, hopeful conversation which we found really valuable and hope you did too.

We were joined by Joseph from A New Field, creators of sustainable craft kits made and packaged using biodegradable or otherwise more sustainable materials and processes. You can see all the materials they use in their kits here, along with several manufacturers who may provide a good starting point for this year’s student teams. Their craft kits ask the user to source some of the raw materials themselves, by going out and foraging for pine needles before chopping and mixing them together with the provided natural ingredients. The result is a mouldable, bakeable putty.

We’ve actually had several Design Ventura teams over the years include an activity or ‘DIY’ component like this in their submitted product designs. It’s a great way of potentially making your product stand out by being more sustainable and customisable. However, it can be tricky to strike a balance between engaging and satisfying your user.

A New Field’s way of striking this balance might help inspire your own students if they’re thinking of making a product with any ‘activity’ component. Most materials are provided in the kit, with one carefully chosen component – importantly one which is fun, not too arduous or inaccessible – given to the user. Information is provided on how to go about obtaining this component both in the kits and in the ‘Foraging’ section of their website FAQ, so the user doesn’t feel abandoned! All this helps ensure that the ‘DIY’ component is a positive part of the product offer rather than making it a chore.

After hearing from Joseph about how A New Field got started – and having a go at making our own craft kits! – we had a whistle-stop tour of the museum’s second-floor public display Tomorrow’s Wardrobe. This display looks at sustainability innovations at all levels of the fashion and textile industries in the UK. It shows how sustainability can be embedded in design at every stage of the product life-cycle: raw materials and manufacturing, supply chain and retail, usage and maintenance of the product, and end-of-life or disposal. Name brands, grassroots manufacturers, and independent designers are featured including Ahluwalia, Phoebe English, Ponda, Ranra, Salomon, Stella McCartney, and Vivobarefoot.

You can find out more about Tomorrow’s Wardrobe on the Future Observatory website – and there will be teacher notes for it up on the Design Museum website very soon – but we’d especially like to highlight a special commission made for this exhibition which we feel could be a useful teaching tool. The Garment Lifecycle Map is an online resource which can be used by anyone anywhere in the world, on both desktop and mobile devices. Just pick a garment type, then click through the segments to find out more about the different stages of its life-cycle.

You can find some more useful links to handy resources including activities, videos, and more on sustainability and sustainable design here.

If you’d like to join us for events like this in future, remember that the best way to stay up-to-date is by signing up for our newsletter and following us on our social media: we’re @Design_Ventura on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter/X.

All photos © Richard Heald Photography / the Design Museum

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Design Ventura 2022-23 Winner The Piggott School
Image: Stack It! (Final Product)

Design Ventura 2022-23: Stack It! by the Piggott School

The Piggott School won with STACK IT! (we kept the exclamation mark for final branding!), a 3D puzzle game. The final form is almost identical in shape, size, and packaging to their wooden prototype, but is made out of recycled white goods from Smile Plastics instead.

Design Agency Support: Map Project Office
Charity: TBC
Amount raised: TBC

Design Ventura 2021-22 Winner Cambourne Village College
Image: Eco Seed (Final Product)

Design Ventura 2021-22: Eco Seed by Cambourne Village College

Cambourne Village College won with their product Eco Seed, an endlessly reusable seedling propagator in the form of a mini ‘life preserver’ ring. We were impressed by their attention to the small details, right down to the innovative packaging.

Design Agency Support: Triple Double Studio and Batch.Works
Charity: MND Association
Amount raised: £2550.42

Design Ventura 2020 Winner Heckmondwike Grammar School
Image: Grow Wild (Final Product)

Design Ventura 2020-21: Sow Beautiful by Heckmondwike Grammar School

Heckmondwike Grammar School won with their product Sow Beautiful, a flower seed cannon that creates a source of pollen for bees.

Design Agency Support: Tom, Dick and Harry
Charity: Kirkwood Hospice
Amount raised: £1849.00

Design Ventura 2019: Creative [Un]Blocks by Twynham School

Twynham School won with their product originally called Design Cubes (now Creative [Un]blocks), a set of dice that help combat creative block. Users roll three dice to create a brief that they have to answer in 60 seconds.

Design Agency Support: Triple Double
Charity: Rainforest Alliance UK
Amount raised: £1,560

Design Ventura 2019: Active Snap by Simon Balle All-through School

Simon Balle All-through School won with their product originally called Hit Snap (now Active Snap), a version of the game Snap to help players keep active. When a match is made, the opponent must perform the exercises pictured on the card. This product went on to be developed by Tomy Toys UK for nationwide sale.

Design Agency Support: Triple Double
Charity: MOVE
Amount raised: £2,615

Design Ventura 2017: Petal Pot by Weatherhead High School

Weatherhead High School won with their product called Petal Pot, a plant pot made from GumTec (recycled chewing gum) that expands as the plant grows, reducing the waste of replacing pots.

Design Agency Support: Giles Miller Studio
Charity: Claire House Children’s Hospice
Amount raised: £1,694

Design Ventura 2016: Hook ₂O by Harrogate Grammar School

Harrogate Grammar School won with their product originally called Aqua Hook (now Hook ₂O), a hook to hold your water bottle outside of your bag to help avoid spillages.

Design Agency Support: Giles Miller Studio
Charity: Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre
Amount raised: £1,079

Design Ventura 2015: Dazzle Racer by Finchley Catholic High School

Finchley Catholic High School won with their product originally called Wheeley’s (now Dazzle Racer), a racing vehicle toy powered by an elastic band and inspired by dazzle ships.

Design Agency Support: Kin
Charity: Great Ormond Street Hospital
Amount raised: £1,570

Design Ventura 2014: Card Cogs by Burnage Academy for Boys

Burnage Academy for Boys won with their product originally called Kard’lapse (now Card Cogs), coloured acrylic discs that allow you to connect playing cards together to create sculptural structures.

Design Agency Support: MultiAdaptor
Charity: The Christie NHS Foundation
Amount raised: £1,864

Design Ventura 2013: Squeezeys by Weald of Kent Grammar School

Weald of Kent Grammar School won with their product originally called Sliderz (now Squeezeys), Fun shaped squeezers that help you to squeeze tubes without losing any contents.

Design Agency Support: MultiAdaptor
Charity: The Brain Tumour Charity
Amount raised: £1,390

Design Ventura 2012: Pin Pics by Trinity Church of England School

Trinity Church of England School won with their product Pic Pins, a set of mix and match pin badges that depict famous London landmarks.

Design Agency Support: Build
Charity: The CATS Foundation
Amount raised: £914

Design Ventura 2011: BaDoiing! by Winner Walworth Academy

Walworth Academy won with their product originally called Slick Shooter (now BaDoiing!), a travel version of the game tiddly winks that fits neatly into your wallet.

Design Agency Support: Build
Charity: David Idowu Foundation
Amount raised: £804

Design Ventura 2010: Dove Bunting by Haberdasher’s Aske’s Hatcham College

Haberdasher’s Aske’s Hatcham College won with their product Dove Bunting, a kit to create cardboard bird bunting with blank pieces that you can decorate.

Design Agency Support: Build
Charity: Greenpeace
Amount raised: £1,141

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Clare Moore
Clare is a Chartered Architect, with a wealth of experience delivering projects in public and private sectors of the industry. This is complimented by her extensive experience as an educator at UK Universities. Clare founded C3M Studio in 2009, a London based architectural practice that provides furniture installations, refurbishments, education and residential projects. Her conceptual approach is characterised by pealing back layers to reveal the original character of existing buildings, by utilising appropriate sustainable materials to creatively reuse and enhance original beauty.

Harry Mitchell
Harry co-founded Beta Design Office, a London based multi-disciplinary design consultancy with a core focus on industrial design. An inventor and maker at heart, Harry’s mechanical intuition and love for how things work means he designs products that last. Previously Associate Director at Sebastian Conran Associates, he has worked on a variety of projects from consumer robotics through to furniture, homewares, and custom motorcycles. 

Richard Brownlie-Marshall

Richard is a multidisciplinary designer who has created work for clients such as Pret A Manger, Zizzi and The Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the Head of Creative at Mindful Chef and has an eponymous line of lifestyle products. Richard’s multi-hyphenate career has seen him work with a diverse collection of brands and over an extensive range of mediums, which has no doubt contributed to his unique perspective in design.

Yelizaveta (Liza) Shinkarenko
Lisa is a UX designer working on Client Lifecycle Transformation and Client Facing Portal projects in Desutsche Bank, London. Prior to becoming a UX designer Lisa was working as a Project Manager and as a QA Automation engineer on various projects across the industry, which gave her a well-rounded understanding of the Software Development process and a critical role that an end user plays in it.
Lisa is passionate about the way art, design and science can bridge the gap between humans and machines, with a goal to create a bright and sustainable future.

The post Design Ventura Shortlisting Panel 2022-23 appeared first on Design Ventura.

Clare Moore
Clare is a Chartered Architect, with a wealth of experience delivering projects in public and private sectors of the industry. This is complimented by her extensive experience as an educator at UK Universities. Clare founded C3M Studio in 2009, a London based architectural practice that provides furniture installations, refurbishments, education and residential projects. Her conceptual approach is characterised by pealing back layers to reveal the original character of existing buildings, by utilising appropriate sustainable materials to creatively reuse and enhance original beauty.

Harry Mitchell
Harry co-founded Beta Design Office, a London based multi-disciplinary design consultancy with a core focus on industrial design. An inventor and maker at heart, Harry’s mechanical intuition and love for how things work means he designs products that last. Previously Associate Director at Sebastian Conran Associates, he has worked on a variety of projects from consumer robotics through to furniture, homewares, and custom motorcycles. 

Jodie Valery
Jodie Valery is a graphic designer at Formula E which is a championship seeing electric cars race around the world. Jodie enjoys working in entertainment/media areas, that also promote sustainability and storytelling through creativity, with her last job also being at BBC Studios. She has experience working with branding, editorial, event branding and campaigns, but when she is not working she loves to practise drawing, do personal design work and go to exhibitions. Design Ventura has been influential in her creativity interest and career as being one of the first winning teams and she finds it great to come back to volunteer with and be a part of the museum.

Sam Griffiths
Sam Griffiths is a designer and the founder of Griffics which has the aim of making the world a more playful place. He develops artwork, products, activities, workshops and projects to help make this happen. He’s interested in the potential of play and playfulness to unlock creativity and address social and environmental issues. He has a background in branding, working with large and small clients to deliver pragmatic, creative and impactful work. His work is largely collaborative, he believes in designing with people, not for them. He loves designing and facilitating workshops that help people embrace their own creativity.

Samuel Mensah
Samuel Mensah is an Award Winning multi-disciplinary Creative, with a focus on Design, Product & Brand. He provides holistic design solutions for branding with conceptual rigour and mastered aesthetic.

Yelizaveta (Liza) Shinkarenko
Liza is a UX designer working on Client Lifecycle Transformation and Client Facing Portal projects in Desutsche Bank, London. Prior to becoming a UX designer Liza was working as a Project Manager and as a QA Automation engineer on various projects across the industry, which gave her a well-rounded understanding of the Software Development process and a critical role that an end user plays in it.
Liza is passionate about the way art, design and science can bridge the gap between humans and machines, with a goal to create a bright and sustainable future.

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Cynthia Voza Lusilu
Cynthia is a transdisciplinary designer born and raised in Paris. She is interested in working with people to collaboratively reimagine ways of learning, thinking, and making.

After graduating with a Masters in Design at Goldsmiths College, she started working as a project designer at CIVIC SQUARE, a Birmingham-based organisation that aims at building the social and civic infrastructure for neighbourhoods of the 21st century. She is currently a Designer in Residence at the Design Museum where she is exploring mental health in Black British communities and developing tools to promote wellbeing and emotional awareness.

Elaine Kelly
Elaine enjoys being a Design Ventura volunteer, and seeing how the school teams are able to develop and deliver such unique and innovative ideas and products. Working within Financial service organisations, Elaine always finds this level of creativity and innovation is both refreshing and inspiring. Elaine brings business insight from her experience working in financial services across multiple organisations and disciplines. Elaine has a keen interest in people and culture within the changing business environment, which is the area she specialised in for her MBA.  

Florence Okoye
Florence (pronouns: she/her) is a UX (User Experience) designer whose practice is based on using service design methods to inclusively design digital experiences and infrastructure. She currently works as a UX designer at the Natural History Museum and is a member of the Kiondo design collective.

Harry Mitchell
Harry co-founded Beta Design Office, a London based multi-disciplinary design consultancy with a core focus on industrial design. An inventor and maker at heart, Harry’s mechanical intuition and love for how things work means he designs products that last. Previously Associate Director at Sebastian Conran Associates, he has worked on a variety of projects from consumer robotics through to furniture, homewares, and custom motorcycles. 

Peta Miller
Peta is passionate about design, and believes in the power of the big idea as the starting point for every brand’s identity. Peta has over three decades of creative expertise, business acumen and production know-how, working directly with clients from most sectors, from global giants to innovative start-ups. Peta trained at Ravensbourne College of Art & Design (Foundation in Graphic Design), and Middlesex Polytechnic (BA Hons in Graphic Design). Peta is a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers and has been a ‘Design Ventura’ industry expert volunteer since 2013.

Samuel Mensah
Samuel Mensah is a London based Creative, whose experience spans from Branding to Art Direction, Digital Product, and Industrial Design. Mensah has used his educational foundation as a springboard for his career. He has created and been credited with crafting award-winning campaigns and products globally for clients such as Nike, Google and Virgin. His self-initiated work and bespoke typefaces have been featured on platforms such as Creative Review, Adobe.com, Abduzeedo, and DesignYouTrust to name a few.

Sara-Jane Shore
Sara-Jane has been an active Design Ventura volunteer for a number of years, and supports workshops by providing practical business insight as a Technology Risk Manager at Deutsche Bank, along with her experience from studying art and graphic design. Sara-Jane enjoys seeing how participating Design Ventura schools are able to design, build and deliver innovative products to be sold in a business context.

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The panel was made up of design and business professionals, who spoke about what they do for a living, how they got where they are and how they use creativity in their jobs, to give students an insight into industries such as fashion, architecture, product design and more.

You can watch the recording of the session below:

You can learn more about each panellist, in alphabetical order, below:

Abiola Onabule

Abiola Onabule is a London-born fashion designer with a masters in Womenswear from Central Saint Martins. She draws inspiration from her own cultural heritages, and through the stories and lives of women, abstracting, distorting and celebrating form through silhouette and cutting techniques. Her work looks to investigate the beauty and importance of individuality and difference. Abiola is one of the Design Museum’s Designers in Residence 2020.

www.abiolaonabule.com

Benni Allan

Benni Allan is founding director of EBBA Architects, an emerging architecture practice in London working across a wide range of sectors including the arts, culture, education and housing. He is also creative director and co-founder of AORA, an online virtual gallery and members platform. Benni is also Lecturer at the University of Greenwich and co-chair of the Architecture Foundation Young Trustees. 

www.eb-ba.co

Florence Okoye

Florence Okoye (pronouns: she/her) is a UX (User Experience) designer whose practice is based on using service design methods to inclusively design digital experiences and infrastructure. She currently works as a UX designer at the Natural History Museum and is a member of the Kiondo design collective.

www.finokoye.com

Harry Mitchell

Harry co-founded Beta Design Office, a London based multi-disciplinary design consultancy with a core focus on industrial design. An inventor and maker at heart, Harry’s mechanical intuition and love for how things work means he designs products that last. Previously Associate Director at Sebastian Conran Associates, he has worked on a variety of projects from consumer robotics through to furniture, homewares, and custom motorcycles. 

www.betadesignoffice.com

Nataly Nieves

Nataly Nieves is one of the innovation drivers of the UKI Innovation Network of Deutsche Bank. She leads the engagement activities within the Innovation Ecosystem including: Deutsche Bank colleagues, technology partners and the investor community. Nataly has a particular focus on the Corporate Bank and the Chief Risk Office, helping them solve real challenges through adopting new and emerging technology. She has been with Deutsche Bank since 2015 and worked on various digital projects across the Private and Commercial Banking division.  

www.db.com

Rob Ames

Rob Ames is Co-Founder and Creative Director of Triclops Studio, a fresh thinking, East London think tank specialising in Toy & Games concept design. Triclops also ‘Story World Build ‘ for both the Toy and Network Entertainments industry aiding them in creating synergised IP, stories & characters that can successfully translate on-screen as well as into product.

With a wealth of experience, Triclops prides itself on a straight forward approach coupled with a genuine passion for product and content in the worlds of toys, games, comics, movies & animation. Clients include – Hasbro, Mattel, LEGO, Disney, Tomy, BBC, CBeebies, Aardman to name a few.

http://www.triclopsstudio.com/

Samuel Mensah

Samuel Mensah is a London based Creative, whose experience spans from Branding to Art Direction, Digital Product, and Industrial Design. 

Mensah has used his educational foundation as a springboard for his career. He has created and been credited with crafting award-winning campaigns and products globally for clients such as Nike, Google and Virgin. 

His self-initiated work and bespoke typefaces have been featured on platforms such as Creative Review, Adobe.com, Abduzeedo, and DesignYouTrust to name a few.

Vicky Phillips

Vicky Phillips is the founder of Lightship Print Shop a surface pattern and illustration studio based on board a lightship in East London. The studio specialises in artwork for apparel, stationery and homewear and has worked with clients from around the world including American Eagle, Paperchase, Blue Mint, Peter Alexander and The Big Draw among others, with artwork appearing on pyjamas to wrapping paper, diaries to swimming trunks and even some giant wooden cubes installed in a carpark!

www.lightshipprintshop.com

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We are pleased to announce that the Design Ventura 2020 brief setter is artist and designer Yinka Ilori. Watch the brief video below:

Yinka Ilori is well known for his bold designs that use shape and colour to tell stories inspired by his British and Nigerian heritage. Yinka  studied Furniture and Product Design at London Metropolitan University. He started by upcycling furniture before moving on to bigger projects, installations and collaborations.

Recent projects include The Dulwich Picture Gallery Pavilion 2019: The Colour Palace, the Thessaly Road Bridge underpass Happy Street, 2019 (pictured above) and the Project Earth window display for Selfridges, London (pictured below).

Yinka works with a team of architects and designers out of a studio in Nortth West London. You can see Yinka’s top tips for students taking part in Design Ventura in the video below:

We are delighted that Yinka will be one of our expert judges, helping to choose this year’s winning idea, at the Pitching Day in March 2021.

The post Meet the Design Ventura 2020 Brief Setter: Yinka Ilori appeared first on Design Ventura.

Valerie Charlton
Valerie’s interest in Human Behaviour led her to obtain a BSc in Psychology before going on to complete a Masters in Industrial Design at the Pratt Institute in New York City.  She has worked in the product design field for over fifteen years, most recently as Design Director of Sebastian Conran Associates, a multidisciplinary London-based consultancy.

Roy Houston
Roy has been an active Design Ventura expert for several years, and by volunteering at workshops he provides his valuable business insight as the Head of Service Assurance Analytical Platforms at Deutsche Bank, along with his experience in the IT industry, Retail, Technology and Financial Services organisations. Roy enjoys seeing how participating Design Ventura schools are able to design, build and deliver innovative products to be sold in a business context.

Peta Miller
Peta is passionate about design, and believes in the power of the big idea as the starting point for every brand’s identity. Peta has over three decades of creative expertise, business acumen and production know-how, working directly with clients from most sectors, from global giants to innovative start-ups. Peta trained at Ravensbourne College of Art & Design (Foundation in Graphic Design), and Middlesex Polytechnic (BA Hons in Graphic Design). Peta is a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers and has been a ‘Design Ventura’ industry expert volunteer since 2013.

Harry Mitchell
Harry is an Associate Director at Sebastian Conran Associates, a London based industrial design consultancy that have a diverse portfolio ranging from homewares through to consumer robotics. After graduating from Northumbria University with a BA (Hons) in Three Dimension Design – Product and Furniture, Harry gained a particular interest in mechanical engineering, which he enjoys applying to live projects as well as at home in his workshop.

Clare Moore
Clare is a Chartered Architect, with a wealth of experience delivering projects in public and private sectors of the industry. This is complimented by her extensive experience as an educator at UK Universities. Clare founded C3M Studio in 2009, a London based architectural practice that provides furniture installations, refurbishments, education and residential projects. Her conceptual approach is characterised by pealing back layers to reveal the original character of existing buildings, by utilising appropriate sustainable materials to creatively reuse and enhance original beauty.

Florence Okoye
Florence (pronouns: she/her) is a UX (User Experience) designer whose practice is based on using service design methods to inclusively design digital experiences and infrastructure. She currently works as a UX designer at the Natural History Museum and is a member of the Kiondo design collective.

Alex Woolley
Alex is one half of creative duo Common Curiosity, a multi-disciplinary design studio based in both London and Birmingham. He is an ideas driven designer, working across various design disciplines, sectors and scales – from global rebrands through to postage stamps. Curious by nature, Alex enjoys the marriage between creativity and craft, with a love for the pursuit of simplicity and using creativity as a problem solver.

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Assemble’s mission is to realize buildings, enterprises, and organizations that support creativity, collaboration, and citizen participation. Their social focus and unique approach was recognised in the receipt of the 2015 Turner Prize – the UK’s foremost art award.

Paloma Strelitz, co-founder and partner of Assemble, launched the 10th year of Design Ventura with this year’s brief film:

Paloma studied architecture at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Art. You can see her top tips for tackling the Design Ventura brief below:

We are delighted that co-founder Jo Halligan will be representing Assemble as one of our expert judges, helping to choose this year’s winning idea, at the Pitching Day in December.

The post Meet the 2019 Design Ventura Brief Setters – Assemble appeared first on Design Ventura.

Design Ventura brought an array of design activities and events to the festival to help inspire teachers.

There was a Design Ventura stall, which provided a one-stop shop for information about the project and sold last year’s winning product Active Snap. There was also a Design Ventura exhibition of the past winning products in the V&A Cafe.

On top of this, Design Ventura curated a number of talks about design and creativity. We hosted a panel discussion on ‘Why we need creativity now more than ever‘ led by Sevra Davis, Head of Learning at the Design Museum. The panel included artist and designer Helga Schmid, Global Head of Marketing at Deutsche Bank, Christoph Woermann and London based architects Chris Hildrey and Asif Khan, who had a lively and engaging debate on the topic.

Sebastian Conran delivered a fascinating keynote speech in the BBC Venue about his journey to becoming a designer, entitled ‘Design is not pretty, soft or fluffy‘.

This was all topped off by a Design CPD with Ellen Ferguson, who delivers the Teacher CPD events for Design Ventura. This hands-on workshop included object handling from the Design Museum’s handling collection.

Thank you to everyone who visited our stall and attended our talks and events as part of the Festival of Education, it was a very inspiring start to the summer!

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