Ravensbourne students best in show at New Designers 2008

05 August 2008

Interiors and Products Students Scoop New Designer of the Year and Best in Show Awards at New Designers

Product and Furniture Design student Max Frommeld has scooped the top award at this year’s New Designers, one of the biggest graduate showcases in the UK. Anthony Pelly, BA Interiors student, was independently awarded Best in Show by brand experts Household Design. Spanning three floors in Islington’s Business Design Centre, New Designers exhibits work from colleges and universities across the UK. This year, students from the areas of both Interior and Product Design were given two separate stands, funded by the college, on which to promote their work.

Max Frommeld, who has studied at Ravensbourne since his Foundation Art & Design Diploma in 2004, was awarded New Designer of the Year for his innovate products including a clock constructed from recycled bathroom scales, a flatpack wooden table held together by an interchangeable centerpiece, and a radiator stand for drying clothes. Another of Max’s products, a laundry system made from plastic bottles and designed for use in third-world countries, won a competition run last year by the Audi New Design Foundation.

Max’s most creative piece, a modular shelving unit, proudly bears Max’s award. The body of the unit is a metal frame, but its flexibility is apparent in the design of the shelves themselves. “The shelving was inspired by living in cramped conditions,” he says. “Each shelf is made up of six wooden slats which can slide to fit corners or odd shaped walls and sloping ceilings.” A number of repositionable accessories, such as coathooks and bookends, add to the unit’s versatility.

“My uncle, who’s a metalworker, helped me to make the frame,” Max continues. “He actually taught me a lot of appreciation for designing and making things by hand. It’s not the same if you’re always designing things digitally – you need to understand how things act in a physical environment. I’ve really enjoyed using Ravensbourne’s workshops and studios to create real products.”

Household Design, a brand management specialist whose recent projects include the rebranding of Virgin Media, launched its creative talent award by naming Anthony Pelly ‘Best in Show’ for his project ‘Hub for the South Downs National Park’, which managed to address a variety of significant topics in his brief. “Anthony’s work captured our imagination and brought to life the idea of a different kind of experience in the countryside, making it accessible and exciting to all kinds of people,” says Keith Fowler, Creative Director for Household Design. “Rationale and conceptual execution were equally matched for a project with impact and scale whilst capturing emotive and endearing quirks.  It’s the kind of project we’d like in the Household studio.”

Other highlights of the Ravensbourne New Designers stands include a briefcase that doubles as a comfy seat, a two-tier planter which is watered by drip-drying your cutlery into the top tier, and a project reusing the old Greenwich Power Station as study, retail, office and performance spaces.