NEWS
Students nominated for Premier’s Design Awards
Four of the five finalists in the new Student Design category at the Premier’s Design Awards are from RMIT.
Industrial Design student Jake Deakin was nominated for his Asthma Inhaler that is both a preventer and a reliever. Photo courtesy of the designer.
The awards recognise and reward Victorian designers and businesses using design effectively and sustainably.
Student Design has been added as a category this year, with submissions assessed by an international panel of judges.
The RMIT finalists are:
- Jake Deakin – Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours), for his Multi-Functional Smart (MFI) Asthma Inhaler
- Stephanie Henly – Bachelor of Fashion (Design) (Honours), for Long Stitch, a material exploration deriving forms from the application of the long stitch.
- Meg McLennan – Master of Communication Design, for the Meat Market Identity for City of Melbourne, completed as part of an industry-integrated studio.
- VicHyper, an interdisciplinary team of 30 RMIT students with expertise spanning aerospace, electrical and mechanical engineering, alongside graphic design, communications and industrial design, for their Hyperloop Pod Prototype.
The VicHyper team is made up of students with expertise spanning aerospace, electrical and mechanical engineering, industrial design, communications and graphic design.
Professor Paul Gough, Pro Vice-Chancellor in RMIT’s College of Design and Social Context, said the exceptional work by the students selected as finalists demonstrates the unique advantage of RMIT’s studio and industry work-integrated learning.
“All our students gain from this integrated model and it’s why we produce so many graduates ready for life and work,” Gough said.
Fashion student Stephanie Henly said her concept was derived from using handcraft within high fashion as a means of community engagement and social enterprise.
“This is achieved through partnering with international artisanal groups to develop their traditional hand techniques,” Henly said.
Design by Fashion student Stephanie Henly who was nominated for using handcraft in high fashion.
Industrial Design student Jake Deakin said his entry, the Connected Health – MFI, is an asthma inhaler that incorporates both preventer and reliever medications (a world first for a hand-held asthma device) and communicates vital information to the individual or carer by incorporating the use of smart technologies.
“When creating this project, RMIT connected me to industry professionals for external evaluation and guidance, which allowed me to develop the MFI to a level I once considered unachievable," Deakin said.
The nomination for the VicHyper team caps off a highly successful year, with the group winning a top technical award for their braking system at the SpaceX Pod Design Weekend in Texas in January.
The team is now preparing to travel to California for the finals of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition early next year, as the only finalists from the Southern Hemisphere.
The winners of the Premier’s Design Awards will be announced on 15 December.
Story: Wendy Little