Winners Announced for ECC NZ Student Craft / Design Awards 2014

Nearly 100 entries were received for this year’s ECC NZ Student Craft / Design Awards with the winners ranging from furniture design to fashion.

At an awards celebration at The Dowse Art Museum on Friday 29th August, the Supreme Award ($3,000 prize money) was awarded to William Nicholson for his entry Flat Pack Stool. William is a graduate from Massey University in Auckland and is a current postgraduate student at Massey in Wellington.

The First Runner Up prize of $1,000 cash went to Nicole Wesseling from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design with the clothing range, Zen. Nicole also convincingly took out The ECC People’s Choice Award adding another $1000 to her prize pool.

William said that as a recently graduated Industrial Design student, receiving first place in the ECC NZ Student Craft / Design Awards was truly an honour. “The opportunity of exposure and recognition within New Zealand's design community is priceless and an exciting milestone as my design career begins. The accompanying financial reward is a huge bonus as I pursue postgraduate studies in Wellington this year”.

The First Runner Up prize of $1,000 cash went to Nicole Wesseling from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design with the clothing range, Zen. Nicole also convincingly took out The ECC People’s Choice Award adding another $1000 to her prize pool.

The three winners and twelve finalists have had their work shown at The Dowse. Director of The Dowse and one of the judges of the awards, Courtney Johnston, says the top entries are an indication of the diverse range of talent coming through tertiary institutions. “From ready-to-market product design through to the hand-crafted one off entries, it is a superb selection. William Nicholson’s winning entry stood out as being innovative, seemingly simple but clever in the details. The 2014 judges were: Richard Crane, ECC, Wellington; Tim Wigmore, furniture and lighting designer; Fiona Campbell, Real Art Roadshow; Kirsten Matthew, editor of Urbis magazine and Courtney Johnston, director of The Dowse.

The Highly Commended Awards went to: Rowan Baker - drum+able (AUT); Nikolai Sorenson - Under cover camper (AUT); Glenn Catchpole - Strap chair (Massey); Fraser Calloway and Oliver Ward - Co-nnection desk (Massey); Llyr Williams and Katie McFarland - Assemble (Massey); Anna Hicks - Metamorphostitch (Massey); Sandra Schmid - Nearly a diamond (Whiteria); Sandra Schmid - Shelter (Whitirea); Chloe Rose Taylor - Everyday Armour (Whitirea); James Irvine - Aoki pendant (Victoria); Adam Ben-Dror - 100 grams (Victoria); Joe Levy - JL002 stool (Victoria); Marvin Reber - Bunker RakerTM (Unitec).