Entries Called for ECC NZ Student Craft / Design Awards

MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release: 8 August 2018

Entries Called for ECC New Zealand Student Craft / Design Awards

If you’re a tertiary student or 2017 graduate, then this is your chance to enter the 2018 ECC New Zealand Student Craft / Design Awards. Run by The Friends of The Dowse, the awards have been supporting emerging designers and crafters for 32 years, since 1986 when it started as a very small competition at The Dowse Art Museum. Now it has grown with the help of some special partners.

Patō - a contemporary Tongan drum, by 2017 Supreme Award Winner, Rachael Hall, Massey University.

Entries are welcome in the fields of lighting, furniture and product design, jewellery, and fashion and textiles. This is the only national award in New Zealand that celebrates creative students studying across multiple creative disciplines and from various levels of study including undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

The Supreme Award winner receives $2,000 in prize money, and in 2017 Massey University design graduate Rachael Hall swooped the competition with Patō a contemporary Tongan drum which brings the sound of the South Pacific into the modern digital environment.

The categories include: ECC Ltd Lighting Award $1,000; ECC Ltd Furniture & Product Design Award $1,000; Tuatara Ceramics Award $1,000; The Village Goldsmith Jewellery Award $1,000; Rembrandt Fashion and Textile Award $1,000, and for the first time this year coffee company L’affare join the partners with an Innovation in Sustainability Award worth $1,000. There is also a People’s Choice Award where the public can vote for their favourite from the top selected entries.

The Innovation in Sustainability category adds another level of interest, “when L’affare approached the Friends of The Dowse, we saw a natural synergy between us. They have the same ethos we have about fostering and supporting creative talent, in fact all our partners do” said Heather Crichton, organiser of the awards. “The introduction of a sustainability category is reflective of the environmental consciousness that our youth are passionate about and we want to make sure that we are providing a channel for students’ to provide creative solutions in this area”.

The judges for 2018 are Anita Dykes from ECC, Federico Monsalve, Editor Urbis Magazine, Jonathon Hall, Design Manager from Rembrandt, Ian Douglas The Village Goldsmith and Paul Cockburn from L’affare.

Entries close: 30 September. Enter online through www.nzcraftdesignawards.com

Awards Ceremony: 1st November, ECC Ltd Wellington store, Thorndon Quay.

ECC Wellington Store Display: 1 – 18 November

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