Designing a sustainable future

Blog

  • Design

‘The RSA changed my life, literally.’ These were the first words of Richard Clarke’s keynote address at the Winners’ ceremony in New York celebrating the culmination of the third annual RSA-US Student Design Awards programme in April 2015.

Richard Clarke is Global Design Vice-President of Nike, Inc. and he is also a past RSA Student Design Award winner. Richard won the award for his fashion entry in the late 1980s while a student in the United Kingdom. Winning an RSA Student Design Award allowed Richard to travel to the United States and begin the design career that set him on the path to Nike. His keynote address in New York to the 2015 cohort of winners in the RSA was an inspiration as he reminded students to stick to their principles and remember the humanity in creativity and design.

The 2015 RSA-US Student Design Award winners represent the best and brightest of emerging designers in the US and they came to New York to showcase their work and demonstrate the power of design in contributing to a more sustainable future.

The 2015 RSA-US Student Design Awards has gone from strength to strength in its three years working with students and faculties at colleges and universities around the United States. This year, the RSA-US SDA received 48 submissions, representing 135 students across a range of briefs on architecture, applied industrial design, communications design and more. From all entries, the judging panel selected the 36 finalists, who were invited to New York to discuss their work. The winning student work ranged from large-scale systems design projects around the future of transport to communications campaigns to encourage us all to do our part to reduce air pollution.

The RSA Student Design Awards programme as a whole operates as a global curriculum and competition in which emerging designers apply their skills to a range of social, economic and environmental issues. The RSA Student Design Awards believes that design is an important skill that can be applied in a variety of ways to help us achieve a brighter and more sustainable future.

The Winners’ Ceremony for the flagship RSA Student Design Awards programme will take place on Thursday, 11th June at the RSA in London and will feature Malcolm Garrett, RDI, as well as Paul Priestman giving the keynote address. More details and information on how to book a free place will be available soon.

Congratulations to all the winners and participants in the RSA-US Student Design Awards! A special thanks to the 2015 Judging Panel: Seren Paige-Bailey, David Turner, together, Duncan Jackson, Paulo Faria, Simon Kristak, Jenny Whitener, Shashi Caan, Marc Shillum, Agnes Bourne, Mark Breeze, Steve Greenberg, Sophia Kassam, Tim Lavalley, Rich Manuck, Timo Rissanen, Susan Sheffield, Rick Valicenti,  Matthew Waldman and Marci Zaroff.

 

 

Be the first to write a comment

0 Comments

Please login to post a comment or reply

Don't have an account? Click here to register.

Related articles

  • Blog: Saving Design Thinking from itself

    Sevra Davis

    We have arrived at a critical moment for design thinking. Sevra Davis explores how we can champion a radical new future for design.

  • 36 Hours in Hong Kong

    Sevra Davis

    Have you ever spent 36 hours in Hong Kong? Sevra Davis has! As the RSA Director of Design and Challenges and Student Design Awards, Sevra was invited to Hong Kong by Birmingham City University in collaboration with the School of Higher and Professional Education (SHAPE) programme at Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI).

  • Blog: A new day for design for social innovation

    Sevra Davis

    As the RSA Student Design Awards launch their programme for 2015-16, we look at how design thinking can help create social innovation