Calling Emerging Designers

March 7, 2005

Calling Emerging Designers

Budding New Zealand designers with exciting new product ideas have until May 27, 2005 to submit their designs for the fifth annual Dyson Product Design Award.

The Dyson Award was set up in 2001, in association with the British Council New Zealand Design Ambassador Programme, The Designers Institute of New Zealand (DINZ) and PRODESIGN, to recognise and reward up and coming Kiwi designers with product design ideas that best demonstrate innovative and inspiring solutions to everyday problems.

Previous award submissions include a digital talking book for the blind, a practical yet stylish skateboarding shoe with a replaceable outer shell and washable inner and a boob shaped baby's bottle.

Last year's winner, Sentinel, a clever life saving product, was designed to protect a crew member who has fallen overboard at sea. The design assists 'Man Overboard' victims to climb into a raft, which has been remotely deployed from the vessel by the victim using an electronic watch. The watch is also designed to activate an onboard alarm to alert the crew to the accident.

The 2005 Dyson Product Design Award recipient will be named a British Council New Zealand Design Ambassador and will travel to the UK with $3,000 travelling expenses where they'll have the opportunity to meet with inventor James Dyson and other key members of the UK design community. Plus they'll receive a year's membership to DINZ, a PRODESiGN magazine subscription, a digital camera, and an invitation to join the D&AD Talentpool, an online database of international design talent.

The winner will also have the opportunity to compete against other emerging product designers for Dyson Blue Print, a global design award to be won by the best of other national level competition winners from around the world. The winner of Dyson Blue Print will receive a $15,000 cash prize package which also includes interaction with Dyson's senior engineers from their Research and Development team based in the UK.

The Award is open to final year tertiary students studying in the areas of design, technology or engineering, and to graduates in these areas who are in their first five years of work force.

Interested applicants can check www.dyson.co.nz for entry information or email entries@dysonawards.co.nz to request an entry pack. Entries can be delivered to Dyson Product Design Award, 32 Church Street, Northcote Point, Auckland.

Notes

* Dyson was founded by James Dyson who made over 5000 prototypes and dedicated 15 years to revolutionise the vacuum cleaner.
* Dyson invests heavily into R&D, a third of Dyson's employees are design engineers developing new technologies to make everyday products work better. Dyson has 577 patents and patents pending in respect of over 438 different inventions, which protect Dyson technology from being copied by imitators.
* Dyson is New Zealand's leading vacuum cleaner brand.
* Dyson is the only floorcare company to partner the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand. The main objective of this alliance is to accomplish deep reaching, long term and better solutions for people with asthma.

ENDS

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