Current Students and Staff

// University News

6 Jul 2015

University Design School student wins top award at New Designers exhibition

Image: Winner of Virgin Atlantic design award Henry Buckley

Product Design and Technology student Henry Buckley has won a top award at this year's New Designers exhibition in London thanks to his clever and innovative design project. 

Henry won the Virgin Atlantic design award, for his ‘MONO’ design, a modular domestic appliance range for urban micro apartments.

After learning that 54 million tonnes of electronic waste are produced worldwide each year, Henry was inspired to create a brief and develop a prototype to lower electronic waste by reducing the number of components and amount of materials used across certain products.

The clever design allows a range of products to be used with one single plug-in and play power module. Appliances are automatically recognised by the power module and can deliver speed control as appropriate, reducing the amount of electronic waste produced.

So far, three products have been developed as part of the range including an air purifier, electric fan and hand vacuum cleaner.

Judges described Henry’s design as ‘beautifully executed’ and said it challenged an everyday problem. 

Jack and Andy, both Industrial Design Technology students graduating this summer, were named the winners of the future@work competition by Furniture Industry Research Association which is sponsored by Morgan.

The competition asked undergraduates to use their creativity to design workspaces of the future.

The pair designed a product to replace the conventional workspace and working conditions for users.

Read the full release here