A warm thank you to all the teachers and students who have worked so hard on this year’s project. We had over 16,000 of you involved, and shortlisting was not an easy task! Another thank you to our shortlisting panel.

After much debate, we have selected our top ten state school entries and top three schools in the International and Independent Category. Please see a full list in alphabetical order below.

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

The top ten state shortlisted schools took place in a Pitching Event on Tuesday 19 March at Deutsche Bank’s headquarters at Winchester House. The final winner will be announced at the Celebration Day at the Design Museum, in April.

DESIGN VENTURA SHORTLIST 2023-24

Christ the King Voluntary Catholic Academy
Road to Go
A bag with a twist! Intended for families on the go, combining their child’s favourite toys with a versatile backdrop in one easily portable package.

Comberton Village College
The Creative Colour Box
A lamp you can make your own, offering you prompts and colourful triangles to create shapes and animals and watch them light up.

Dover Grammar School
OUTFITY
A tool to help you simplify your wardrobe and decide what outfit to wear, whether it’s day-to-day or a special occasion.

Ferndown Upper School
Bouncy Buddies
Fun, colourful, and of course bouncy collectible figures of your favourite designers, to show off on your desk or in your car. Include facts about design and design history.

Haggerston School
Braille Calendar
A calendar for visually impaired users, incorporating braille as well as auditory cues such as clicks when you have successfully changed the date.

Heathcote School
Study Buddy
A self-assembly, flat-packed revision organiser made from a single sheet of sustainable material.

Manor CE Academy
SCRAP
It stands for Safety-Conscious-Reflect-and-Protect! Increase your visibility at night while providing a waste solution for synthetic hi-vis textiles.

Piggott School
Colour Countdown
A game inspired by I Spy, but based around colours. Race the clock and engage with the environment around you.

St Joseph’s Catholic High School
Emergency Cache
A compact solution for carrying small necessities on the go: maybe a trolley coin, reusable shopping bag, and some hairpins.

Upper Shirley High School
Dish of the Day
A super-versatile board game focusing on communities in London and the dishes they share.

INTERNATIONAL AND INDEPENDENT CATEGORY

King’s School Canterbury
Buzz Off!
A sustainable, visually appealing fly-removal solution! A biomimicry design based on nature’s own fly-removal solution, the carnivorous plant.

St John’s School
Losing Conetrol
The washable, reusable multi-fit ice cream drip catcher you’ve always wished for.

Tudor Hall School
Feel ELEAT
A pencil case to help young people express themselves and their needs, using emojis they can swap out on the outside to let others know how they’re feeling that day.

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Each team had a chance to present their product idea and prototypes to our panel of expert judges who were extremely impressed with the professionalism of the students’ three minute pitches.

The judges from left to right: Christoph Woermann, Preena Pate, Sujata Burman, Selasi Setufe and Sebastian Conran.

Amy Harris, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility UK at Deutsche Bank, kicked off the event with a very warm welcome to Winchester House.

The panel had a fantastic time meeting the students, watching their presentations and questioning them about their product ideas. The students were very well prepared and gave fantastic answers!

Whilst the judges were busy deliberating and having to make very difficult decisions choosing all the prize winners, the students took part in a networking session with the other top 10 schools!

The winner will be announced in April when all the schools will return to the Design Museum for the Celebration Event.

All photos ©Richard Heald/Design Museum

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Each team had a chance to present their product idea and prototypes to our panel of expert judges who were extremely impressed with the professionalism of the students’ three minute pitches.

The judges from left to right: Rosa Bertoli, Christoph Woermann, Preena Patel, Yuri Suzuki and Sebastian Conran.

Lareena Hilton, Global Head of Brand Communications & CSR at Deutsche Bank, kicked off the event with a very warm welcome to Winchester House.

Fiona MacDonald, Head of Learning at the Design Museum thanked everyone for coming and passed over to Ellen Ferguson who invited each school up to pitch.

The panel had a fantastic time meeting the students, watching their presentations and questioning them about their product ideas. The students were very well prepared and gave fantastic answers!

Whilst the judges were busy deliberating and having to make very difficult decisions choosing all the prize winners, the students took part in a fun design challenge, seeing who could create the tallest Jenga tower!

Cambourne Village College won the challenge with a very tall tower!

The day ended with the judges giving constructive feedback to all the teams. The winner will be announced in April when all the schools will return to the Design Museum for the Celebration Event.

All photos ©Luc Schol/Design Museum

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The judges were incredibly impressed by the professionalism of the students’ pitch videos. You can watch a selection of short snippets of these in the video below:

The seven state schools also joined the judges for a 15 minute live Q&A session. This was an opportunity for the judges to ask the students further questions about their design process and product idea. The judges really enjoyed meeting the students and learning more about their designs.

Well done to all the student teams for all their hard work. We look forward to welcoming the state schools to the Design Museum for the Celebration Event on Friday 11 June 2021, where the winner will be announced. The schools in the International and Independent Category will attend an award day at the Design Museum in July.

Good luck teams!

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However, we should always be able to step away and look at our ideas through a different lens. Because when the pitching process starts, it is not what you or your team think about the product. It’s how the audience you are pitching to will perceive it that counts. Remember, it’s the first time they are going see it.

Be honest to yourself. And also, be aware of the people in the audience. try to understand them if you can. What have they done in the past, how do they approach their work. They need to be engaged, even entertained, while you are pitching. How are you going to engage and entertain them with your pitch?

There’s a question I always ask to myself when I have to present something new: Can I explain this idea in ten words or less? It’s a tough one, but it allows me to focus on communicating the most important things, without getting lost in irrelevant details.

Here is an example of my own work, where I was challenged to find ways to help raise funds for a charity called “Pathway” that helps homeless people get personalised medical attention when they are treated in a London Hospital.

This is the idea we had, in ten words: Up-cycle former homeless clothes to show transformational impact of healthcare.

So, when pitching your idea, keep that in mind: what ten words describes your product? Your audience might not be aware of all the work you put behind it but if the idea is relevant and catches their attention it will come alive and grow in the real world. Focus on that.

The post Industry Insights: Understanding the Pitching Process appeared first on Design Ventura.

Each team had a chance to present their product idea and prototypes to our panel of expert judges who were extremely impressed with the professionalism of the students’ three minute pitches.

The judges from left to right: Katie Greenyer, Duncan Sanders, Christoph Woermann, Morag Myerscough, and Joseph Halligan.

Lareena Hilton, Global Head of Brand Communications & CSR at Deutsche Bank, kicked off the event with a very warm welcome to Winchester House.

Alice Black, Director of the Design Museum, thanked everyone for coming and passed over to Ellen Ferguson who invited each school up to pitch.

The panel had a fantastic time meeting the students, watching their presentations and questioning them about their product ideas. The students were very well prepared and gave fantastic answers!

Whilst the judges were busy deliberating and having to make very difficult decisions choosing all the prize winners, the students took part in a fun design challenge, seeing who could create the tallest Jenga tower!

George Spencer Academy won the challenge with a very tall tower!

The day ended with the judges giving constructive feedback to all the teams. The winner will be announced in February when all the schools will return to the Design Museum for the Celebration Event.

All photos ©Richard Heald/Design Museum

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The judges loved Spalding School’s Family Stuff Fund. The panel liked that the idea improved every day life for one of the Design Museum Shop’s target users – families. This was well demonstrated thorough development, prototyping and research.

Below is their submission form and A3 sheets. We’d like to highlight some of the strengths and some areas for improvement from their submission, things to look out for when submitting for Design Ventura 2019.

Strengths:

1. Clarity – the layout is clear and easy to understand. The sheets clearly communicate what the product is and show the design process. Also, each sheet has the name of the school at the bottom.
2. Design Development – the sheets show the design process. They include initial sketches of the idea, research into similar existing products, photos of prototypes and ideas for packaging design.
3. Budgeting – they have looked at costings and suppliers.

Areas for improvement:

1. Further research – while they have shown good research of other similar products, some further research of the Design Museum Shop specifically could have been useful to show.
2. User testing and feedback – including feedback on their design by their target audience would have strengthened this entry.
3. Sustainability – more information about how they plan to minimise the negative impact of their product on the environment would have strengthened this entry.

The Spalding High School team made it into the Design Ventura 2018 top ten shortlist with this submission. They pitched their ideas to our expert judges at the Pitching Event in December and were awarded ‘commendation for most market ready product’ at the Celebration Event in February.

We can’t wait to see all the wonderful submissions for Design Ventura 2019!

The post Example Submission: 2018 Family Stuff Fund appeared first on Design Ventura.

Each team had a chance to present their idea and prototypes to our panel of expert judges who were extremely impressed with the professionalism of the students’ three minute pitches.

The judges from left to right: Christoph Woermann, Donna Wilson, Duncan Sanders, Sebastian Conran and Heather Corcoran.

Here are all of our schools waiting with anticipation for the Pitching Event to begin.

The panel had a fantastic time watching all the presentations and questioning the students about their product ideas. The students were very well prepared and gave fantastic answers!

Whilst the judges were busy deliberating and having to make very difficult decisions choosing all the prize winners, the students and teachers took part in a fun design challenge, seeing who could create the tallest structure out of marshmallows and spaghetti.

Gillotts School won the challenge with a very tall tower!

The day ended with the judges giving constructive feedback to all the teams. The winner will be announced in February when all the schools will return to the Design Museum for the Celebration Event.

All photos ©Benedict Johnson/Design Museum

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The judges loved Fairmead School’s Spinning Thumb Plate. The panel liked that the idea met a specific need, demonstrated thorough development, prototyping and research.

Below is their submission form and A3 sheets. We’d like to highlight some of the strengths and some areas for improvement from their submission, things to look out for when submitting for Design Ventura 2018.

Entry Form:

A3 Sheets:

Budget:

Strengths:

1. Clarity – the layout is clear and easy to understand. The sheets clearly communicate what the product is and show the full design process. Also, each sheet has the name of the school at the top.
2. Design Development – the sheets show the design process from beginning to end. They include initial sketches of the idea and photos of different prototypes. They show the product in use and the planned packaging design.
3. Budgeting – they have filled out a sample budget sheet, looking at costings and suppliers. (While the budget sheet is not a requirement of submission, clear costings should be included in your A3 sheets if not included in a separate budget sheet.)

Areas for improvement:

1. Only 2 sheets – we do ask schools to submit 3 sheets and an optional, additional budget sheet.
2. Further research – while they have shown good research of other similar products, some further research of the Design Museum Shop specifically could have been useful to show.
3. User testing and feedback – including feedback on their design by their target audience would have strengthened this entry.

We can’t wait to see all the wonderful submissions for Design Ventura 2018!

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