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Student Design Competition Showcases Creative Product concepts at 2009 international Home + Housewares Show
Universal Designs Address Real Life Needs
ROSEMONT, Ill. (Feb. 18, 2009)—Winning entries in the 16th annual Student Design Competition, sponsored by the International Housewares Association (IHA), address real life issues with innovative product concepts that help people with physical limitations or those in traumatic situations.
Nora Flood, a junior at Purdue University, earned first place and $2,400 for her design of Escape, a residential fire escape ladder that uses the window frame for support rather than hooking onto the windowsill. It’s easy to use and repack, allowing homeowners to practice with it before an emergency arises. In addition, Escape is compact and easy to store, and solves a number of issues that arise with traditional fire escape ladders.
“The design for Escape was driven by my mom’s fear of having a fire in her house and not being able to get out,” Flood explains. “Based on deep research, I identified problems with existing fire escape ladders, and looked for new solutions and ways to merge them to make the user’s experience as simple and risk-free as possible.”
The jury of designers, working in a blind judging process, recognized great concepts, backed up with research, development and creative design, to award a total of 14 prizes to students in seven design schools in the United States. For the first time in the contest’s history, a majority of the top winners were women.
“Escape is a great example of a project that identifies a real need while providing a strategically thought-out solution that is also beautifully designed,” said one of the judges, Bill Lazaroff, senior vice president of product development and design for Lifetime Brands Inc. in Garden City, N.J. “The student's research into competitive items, price points, materials and human factors, combined with an understanding of the psychological issues that can be overwhelming in an emergency situation, displayed a unique and highly intelligent perspective. This item makes a great deal of sense from a business and design standpoint, but most importantly it could actually save lives.”
The product prototypes and their creators will take center stage in the Housewares Design Center at the 2009 International Home + Housewares Show, March 22-24, at Chicago's McCormick Place. The Show is expected to attract 60,000 visitors from more than 100 countries all focused on buying and selling the latest products at the world’s largest homegoods marketplace.
spice and EB01 Emrgnts Blanket Share Second Place
Second place and $1,800 each were awarded to Kat Cummins, a senior at Notre Dame University for spice, and Frank Zaremba, a senior at the Cleveland Institute of Art for EB01 Emrgnts Blanket.
The spice system makes the opening, measuring, storing and mixing of spices simple and easy. Traditional spice containers can be difficult to open for people with arthritic or weak hands. The cubic form of spice opens with a press of the finger and includes a ½ tsp. measure. Cubes can be stacked in various configurations and snap into place so they stay stacked.
The EB01Emrgnts Blanket is designed for use by emergency responders to assess and increase an individual’s sense of well-being during an acute traumatic event. The soft, enveloping blanket has built-in sensory experiences that help move the individual into a more positive emotional state.
Third Place Goes to Slice & Scoop, Enrich Bread Maker and Candu Trash Bin
Three third-place awards for $1,200 each went to: Kaitlyn Benoit, a University of Notre Dame senior, for Slice & Scoop; Jessica Jurca, a Cleveland Institute of Art senior, for Enrich
Bread Maker; and Vu Phan, an Arizona State University junior, for Candu Trash Bin.
The Slice & Scoop is a cutting aid developed for the blind and visually impaired. The cutting guard instructs the user as to the correct hand positioning for safe cutting while guiding the path of the knife and guarding the hand in the process. Once the food has been chopped, the Slice & Scoop helps to gather it up with minimum handling and mess.
The Enrich Bread Maker is a product designed for communal sharing. Users grow closer to each other as they share the bread maker and recipes. Enrich also allows them to make breads from all over the globe, including naan and Chinese steamed bread, unlike bread makers currently on the market.
The Candu Trash Bin provides maximum physical support for the user during the entire waste disposal process, without any use of external/electric power. Candu features a sideways bin removal system to eliminate the stresses of lifting a traditional trash bin or bag. The sideways bin has integrated wheels and handles for pulling and lifting, making it effortless to transport waste to a remote dumpster.
This is the 16th year that winning design students have been honored at the Show, expanding awareness of careers in industrial design among students and highlighting the impact of design on the $76.3 billion U.S. housewares industry. The competition is endorsed by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).
This year, 205 project entries were submitted from 26 IDSA-affiliated design schools in North America, plus three universities in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. The University of Notre Dame and the Cleveland Institute of Art each captured two of the six top prizes, with Purdue University and Arizona State University students winning the other two top prizes. IHA granted the four schools a total of $2,500 to support their design programs. First, second and third place student winners divided $10,000 in prize money and receive an all- expense paid trip to the Show to display their designs. In addition, an honorable mention and $250 cash award went to eight students.
The design competition’s annual challenge to students is to redesign a current housewares product to meet the needs of the future or to create a concept for a new product. Winning projects are selected for their innovation, understanding of production and marketing principles, and quality of entry materials. All winners will be recommended as candidates for design internship positions for IHA member companies, a value-added benefit. IHA members seeking design interns should contact Victoria Matranga, IHA’s design programs coordinator at vmatranga@housewares.org
Honorable Mentions
The following students received Honorable Mentions and a $250 prize:
- J. Scott Reeves, Arizona State University, junior – Breeze
- William Lau, Carleton University, junior – Moribana
- Dan Rowe, Cleveland Institute of Art, senior – Activate
- Justin Cumming, Cleveland Institute of Art, senior – D-Trap: A Humane Wildlife Management System
- Jennifer Myers, Columbus College of Art & Design, senior – Safe Apron
- Darius Kamran, Purdue University, junior – Revo
- Jordan R. Bailey, Purdue University, junior – Bru Coffee Maker
- Tom Etheridge, San Francisco State University, senior – H2Aid
This year's winners were chosen by a respected jury, which included designers from IHA member companies (including one who was a first place winner four years ago), design consultants and two educators. The 10 judges spent many volunteer hours reviewing the submissions, which consisted of written materials, sketches, engineering drawings and slides. Lazaroff, who has been responsible for many thousands of new product introductions for Lifetime Brands, said, “The IHA’s Student Design Competition is invaluable to the industry. With this contest, the industry helps to unveil some of the most creative minds in our industrial design schools while providing the students and their ideas tremendous exposure. Considering that many of these students find jobs within our industry and many of their ideas become real products, we are to some degree seeing a bit of the future when doing the judging.”
In addition to Lazaroff, the jury included: Doug Carpiaux, industrial design manager, Brooks Stevens Design Associates, Allenton, Wis.; Kirsten Climer, industrial designer, Smart Design, New York, N.Y.; Dan DeBrunner, Coleman Company Inc., Wichita, Kan.; Christine Leitner, senior recruiter & career strategist, Yeh IDeology, and principal, CL Design, New York, N.Y.; Pascal Malassigne, professor, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee, Wis.; Michael Mastroianni, design manager, Amco Corp., Vernon Hills, Ill.; Kiersten Muenchinger, director, product design, University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.; Michael Prince, president, Beyond Design, Chicago, Ill.; and Guoyao "Yuki" Ye, senior industrial designer, Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc., Glen Allen, Va.
Editor’s Note: Digital images of the winning designs are available upon request. Please call Debbie Teschke at 847-692-0110 or email dteschke@housewares.org for copies.
