On 21st June, both staff and students were excited to be joined by industry representatives from across various creative industries and design disciplines to help celebrate and acknowledge the students’ achievements through presenting a series of awards.
The judges very generously awarded the winning students with career and profile-building opportunities which ranged from portfolio reviews, mentoring and work experience. Details of the awards, winners, and judges are included below.
Freelance-Ready Award - Winner: Maya Agnihotri
Presented by Jess Williams, Freelance Textile Designer
Playscapes
An engaging and playful print collection intended for young families’ living spaces. The functional designs aim to nurture children’s imagination and creativity through playful discovery, while also appealing to parent’s aesthetic preferences.
“Maya has a light-hearted, fun and playful style to her work. I am impressed with Maya’s sense of how to build a coherent pattern collection, combining ‘hero’ print illustrations with collections of coordinated fabrics. Maya’s hand rendered designs relate to future trends within the fashion industry for a playful, light hearted and joyful aesthetic for Spring/Summer 2022.”
You can see more of Maya's work at @greentreehideout
Creative Design Award - Winner: Penfia Rodrigues
Presented by Kay Jones, Jane Bradley-Bain and Jay Ralley-Jones from Brintons’ design team.
Re-Root
A luxury printed textile collection for interiors that celebrates the beauty of being immersed in natural forest environments while also highlighting the issue of deforestation prevalent in Goa and other areas of the world. The collection is intended to inspire change to ‘re-root’ our environments.
“Penfia’s beautiful, intricate drawing and design work demonstrates great attention to detail and the layering techniques create a real depth to the final designs. What also really appealed and related to us at Brintons was how some of the final pieces could be interpreted into carpet designs on a commercial level.”
You can see more of Penria's work at @penfiarodrigues_textiles or campsite.bio/penfiar
Bespoke Textile Concept Award - Winner: Sarah J Harper
Presented by Liss Cooke, Digital Embroidery Production Coordinator at Hand and Lock Ltd
3 Sisters
This large-scale textile installation is intended to set the foundations for a future of positive mental health through stimulating conversations and healthy debate around loss and bereavement. The emotive work captures emotions felt by Sarah and her sisters as a response to their Covid-19 affected year.
“This honest, raw and vulnerable concept has inspired one of the most stunning textile installations that I have ever seen. Sarah’s haunting concept was reflected in the fragility of the textile work, and the three sister’s emotional journey has been captured and bound together to create a really beautiful piece of textile art.”
You can see more of Sarah's work at @sarahj131
Materiality Award - Winner: Keely Russell
Presented by Lorna Williams and Karen Quarterman-Crisford, from the design team at Amtico.
Fractal Recharge
This interior collection of printed natural textiles uses the principles of biophilic design to enhance living spaces with soft geometry and textured surfaces to create a soothing space intended to improve concentration, productivity and creativity.
“We love the combination of the illustrative yet painterly style within Keely’s work. Hand-crafted elements are teamed with strong technical ability and the results are confident and refreshingly simple. Striking shapes and overlay textures create abstract patterns with natural elements. The influences feel relatable to future trends and this really resonated with us.”
You can see more of Keely's work at @keelydesigns
Enterprise Potential Award - Winner: Olivia Bell
Presented by Laura Oztekin, Print Entrepeneur
Kinetic Luminosity
An innovative approach to pattern design which utilises projection mapping technology to create immersive experiences within contemporary hospitality spaces. Printed textiles work in harmony with pattern projection to create stimulating and interchangeable moods and environments.
“Olivia’s broad skill set showcases strong branding, social media, presentation skills for interiors, fashion and styling as well as design skills which was impressive from an enterprise perspective. Her final project utilised animation technology in a way which felt reactive to current events and receptive to consumers changing interests and the business needs of hospitality spaces.”
You can see more of Olivia's work at @oliviaelsadesigns
Design for a Positive Future Award - Winner: Chloe Warren
Presented by Hannah Malein, Creative Director at ColourHive
Organic Colouration
This body of experimental embroidery sampling and material experiments demonstrate how natural dyes and bioplastics can be created using waste fruit and vegetables from the commercial sector to propose more sustainable alternatives for the fashion and textile industry.
“One of the things that we are talking about a lot at ColourHive is limiting consumption and experimenting with better, more sustainable design processes. Chloe’s biomaterials project stood out as an interesting and intriguing project which is a great example of this. It was a brave approach and Chloe’s passion for her work shone through clearly.”
You can see more of Chloe's work at @chloe_eve_textiles
Commercial Pattern Award - Winner: Rachael Lawton
Presented by John Hall, Founder and Director of About Pattern Studio.
Neo Lens
This series of tactile and intriguing print and surface design statements for interiors are a response to the legacy of my great-great-grandfather who was an inventor and engineer. Inspired by his precise engineering drawings the design work explores ideas of movement and sound through optical imagery.
“There was something about Rachael’s final project that really resonated with me. Her concept was a really interesting and personal starting point. Rachael also sensitively combined print and fabric manipulation processes through a wide range of mediums to achieve a really sophisticated finish to her collection. The finished textiles could work across a variety of platforms in print.”
You can see more of Rachael's work at @rachael.lawton
BCU Creative Spirit Award (Internal) - Winner: Mahawa Keita
Presented by the BCU Textile Design Lecturing Team
My Astute Mother
Story-telling though constructed textile processes such as hand knotting and macramé, these large-scale textile installations are a personal narrative of my mother’s life.
“This award was unanimously chosen by the Textile Design lecturers. This is to acknowledge the huge progress that Mahawa has made since joining us in L5 and the bravery and ambition shown in her final year project. Mahawa developed memorable textile statements that highlight important issues such as human rights, motherhood and resilience, which was expressed in a dynamic and creative way.”
You can see more of Mahawa's work at @mansading_designs or www.masading.com
