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‘Sow Beautiful, a seed launcher designed by a team of school students from Heckmondwike Grammar School in West Yorkshire, has won 2020’s Design Ventura, an annual design and enterprise challenge.
The goal of the winning design is to bring the ‘buzz’ back to Britain using a seed launcher to grow wildflowers and combat the decline in British wild bees.
The winning product will now be manufactured for sale in the Design Museum Shop from Autumn, with all sale proceeds going to a charity of the students’ choice.
‘Sow Beautiful is a playful and appealing product for families that tackles the real world problem of bee population decline. It will make a wonderful addition to the Design Museum Shop in Autumn 2021, during our Waste Age exhibition, where we will be showcasing the importance of design for a sustainable planet.’
FIONA MACDONALD
Head of learning at the Design Museum
The Design Ventura programme enables students to gain real world design and enterprise skills and experience. Every year, the competition invites teams of students aged 13-16 from across the UK and internationally to design a new product to improve everyday life, which will then be sold in the Design Museum Shop.
Students respond to a live brief set by a leading designer and must consider ethical, sustainable, accessible and user-centred design principles, as well as business considerations such as budgeting and marketing, to create an innovative new product. This year’s design brief was set by artist and designer Yinka Ilori.
Schools were closed for much of this academic year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the significant impact to education, students worked together (often remotely) to come up with innovative design ideas, and Design Ventura 2020 saw over 15,600 students from 270 schools take part.
‘I wish I had had a programme like Design Ventura when I was younger. I am here now but the young people behind me, they are the future of the industry, the future of design. We need to nurture that talent and support and encourage those young people. Let them know that you can make a career out of design.’
YINKA ILORI
Artist, designer and Design Ventura 2020 brief setter
The overall winner was selected from a shortlist of seven schools, who pitched their ideas to a panel of leading design and business experts including Shahidha Bari, critic, broadcaster and Professor of Fashion Cultures and Histories at London College of Fashion; Sebastian Conran, designer and trustee at the Design Museum; Yinka Ilori, artist, designer and Design Ventura 2020 brief setter; Duncan Sanders, head of trading at the Design Museum and Christoph Woermann, global head of corporate bank marketing at Deutsche Bank.
The seven shortlisted state school teams will have their work on display at the Design Museum until 22 August.
This year’s competition marks 11 years of the programme, which has seen over 108,000 students from 2,450 schools participate since its launch.
Active Snap, the Design Ventura 2018 winner from Simon Balle All-through School, went on to be developed commercially and was released nationally by renowned toy manufacturer TOMY UK.
New plan for B-Lines – UK-wide insect superhighways – launched with support from Steve Backshall.
EU Court of Justice rejects Bayer attempt to overturn bee-killing pesticide ban.
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