The Design Museum reveal the winners of Design Ventura 2019

The Design Museum Shop has launched ‘Creative [Un]blocks’ – the winning entry for Design Ventura 2019 from Twynham School’s team of students Amillie, Jemma, Toby and Rachael.

Chosen by a panel of judges including last year’s brief setters, Turner Prize-winning design collective Assemble, Creative [Un]blocks beat out competition from over three hundred secondary schools across the UK.

Supported by Deutsche Bank as part of its global youth engagement programme Born to Be, Design Ventura invites secondary state school students to develop their creative and entrepreneurial skills by designing and developing a real product for a real target audience.

For the 2019 edition, the brief asked students to improve an aspect of everyday life for families, adult design enthusiasts or young people whilst also considering sustainability. Addressing all of these groups Creative [Un]blocks is both a fun family game and an elegant solution to the age old problem of creative block.

The game is made up of three dice dedicated to different categories including, audience (kids, teenagers, pets etc.), industry (fashion, travel, health, etc.) and sense (touch, smell, taste, etc.) When rolled the resulting combination creates a design brief that players have 60 seconds to answer – kick starting the design process.

In keeping with the sustainability goals of the programme, the product includes minimal, fully recyclable packaging and the students personally selected the Rainforest Alliance UK as the charity they wanted to receive the sales proceeds.

Creative [Un]blocks has been developed and launched during lockdown, showing the continued creativity and innovation of schools and students during this unusual and challenging time.

After pitching their idea, the team from Twynham School participated in the development process with designers from Triple Double creative studio over a series of Zoom calls and

socially distanced meetings and are now launching the product online via the Design Museum Shop.

It will be available in the Design Museum Shop online from 16 November 2020 for £5.95. All proceeds from sales will be donated to the Rainforest Alliance UK.

Lareena Hilton, global head of brand & CSR, Deutsche Bank, said: “As we find new ways to work and live, it is increasingly important to develop creative thinking and enterprise skills in future generations. Developed and launched during lockdown, Creative [Un]blocks shows the adaptability, resilience and creativity of young people and the ability of the Design Ventura programme to do exactly that. I hope the product goes on to inspire a host of budding designers, creatives and young entrepreneurs up and down the country.”

Joseph Halligan, co-founder of Assemble, said: “Creative [Un]Blocks really stood out because it provided a simple and elegant solution to every designer’s worst nightmare, creative block. The students addressed all of the key elements of the brief: target audience, materials and sustainability, budgeting, branding and packaging. I am looking forward to getting a set for the studio.”

Inspired by Creative [Un]blocks, the Design Museum in collaboration with Triple Double creative studio has also launched The Idea Machine, an online learning tool for budding designers which challenges them to respond to a randomly generated creative brief in 60 seconds.

For the 11th edition of the Design Museum and Deutsche Bank’s Design Ventura, Yinka Ilori has been chosen to set the brief which can be seen here. Well known for his bold works, Yinka uses shape and colour to create objects that tell stories inspired by his British and Nigerian heritage.

Yinka Ilori said: “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.”