Designed in Cornwall

12:56pm Tuesday 24th June 2008

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School pupils across the county will be making their way excitedly to University College Falmouth's Design Centre on the Tremough Campus on Thursday this week, to attend an awards ceremony for Designed in Cornwall, a new event at which to showcase their outstanding work in design and technology.

More than 200 GCSE and A level students from secondary schools and tertiary colleges across Cornwall have taken part in the showcase, organised by staff from University College Falmouth, and teachers from across the county.

An exhibition of the students' work is being held in the Design Centre at University College Falmouth's Tremough Campus on Saturday June 28 from 11am to 4pm, which the public are warmly invited to view the imaginative work of these budding designers.

The innovative and diverse range of work will consist of a new seasonal type of footwear together with point-of-sale promotional materials designed by Toby Sullivan at Cornwall College to an Eco Power source, created by Jessica Finch from Richard Lander School, that provides campers with a means of harnessing wind power to recharge batteries and enables them to cook using solar power. Other pioneering work on display encompasses gardening, recycling, lighting, baby wear and furniture to fashion, jewellery, food, photography and agriculture.

"Following the success of the Richard Lander Design Show-off - a yearly design exhibition at the school - the idea for a county-wide show was born," explains Richard Stott, the Design & Technology Team Leader/AST at Richard Lander School. "Following his visit to our show last year, I approached UCF's Director of Design, John Miller, with the idea of designed in Cornwall which he kindly welcomed with open arms and agreed to host."

"I very much hope that Designed in Cornwall will become a yearly event," commented John Miller, "We want to celebrate the talent coming out of Cornish schools and to encourage more of our young people to consider careers in design," he added. "Both students and teachers have responded magnificently to the opportunity to display their work in the inspirational surroundings of the Design Centre."

In 2003, University College Falmouth opened the Design Centre, part of a £130 million development funded under the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) initiative. The Design Centre provides impressive facilities for degree courses in Contemporary Crafts, 3D and Spatial Design, Textile Design and Garden Design, and it also houses a Research Cluster in 3D Digital Production, Autonomatic. Its innovative, open-plan layout removes the boundaries between disciplines and provides invaluable opportunities for collaboration between them. The pupils taking part in will be able to see samples of work from each of these courses.

In April 2008, University College Falmouth merged with Dartington College of Arts to create a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing.

The merger will pave the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall in 2012, creating a Higher Education institution unique to the South West.