A story telling app and a sensory blanket have won this year’s student design for aging competition, “Designing for the Future”.
“Designing for the Future” run by The Future Perfect Company in conjunction with the University of Brighton is now in its fourth year and encourages student designers to think about the challenges and issues affecting our ageing population – and to create innovative and attractive and designs which allow older people to continue to live enjoyable, active and independent lives.
Winner Holly Alexander and runner up Jack Durling have won a package of support and promotion including various opportunities to showcase their projects to the public. Winner Holly will also be invited to join the judging panel for a similar competition run by The Future Perfect Company at Collyer’s Sixth Form College.
Founder of The Future Perfect Company, Philippa Aldrich explains: “As the “Designing for the Future” Competition has grown, I have become increasingly aware that in order to create an innovation pipeline for this area of design, the students need support and encouragement beyond the initial Competition to help them develop their projects and also launch themselves into the design world after graduation. Holly and Jack will be joining an impressive group of “Designing for the Future” alumni, including Chloe Meineck who is now Designer in Residence at the Design Museum.”
The Competition received entries from two year groups of 3D Design & Craft students at the University of Brighton and was coordinated by tutor and furniture designer Gareth Neal and judged by Anne Boddington, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Brighton; Philippa Aldrich, founder of The Future Perfect Company; Gretel Jones, senior consumer markets policy adviser at Age UK; and Tom Serpell, Director of Eastbourne – Designed for all.
Says Tom Serpell: “It was heartening to see that after 40 years in product development the well is far from dry and that there is so much talent and creativity in the coming generation. The students’ ideas and projects were without exception thoughtful yet applied a wide range of materials and methods. What was so interesting to me was the combination of modern technologies with familiar crafts and objects. This award scheme is timely and valuable for the socio-economic needs of today”.
This year’s winner, Holly Alexander focused on using story telling to build relationships within a family community. Linking a traditional spinning top with an iPad, Holly’s app encourages families to share and record stories and store them in a digital family library.
Runner up, Jack Durling developed a sensory blanket which both stimulates and entertains people living with dementia.
Both projects will be included in a showcase of work from the “Designing for the Future” Competition in the Design Zone at the Mobility Roadshow