Edinburgh College of Art graduate wins New Designers award

The New Designers exhibition, which showcases more than 3,000 fresh-thinking, innovative graduate design talent from the UK’s leading art and design courses, has named Edinburgh College of Art’s Tereza Astilean as winner of the New Designers Pentland Brands Award.

Edinburgh’s Astilean impressed a panel of creative professionals with her unique collection, entitled ‘Verpackt’ that featured a low-cost thermal jacket and a backpack, which could be attached to the jacket to becoming a sleeping bag that consisted entirely of recycled material developed from the offcuts of carpets.

Judges commented that her collection was “fantastically researched” and that they were impressed with how her innovative product would help combat the vast amount of carpet waste to make an eco-friendly product. They added that they also loved how the “novel idea” converts a jacket and rucksack into a sleeping bag.

Edinburgh College of Art’s Tereza Astilean wins New Designers Pentland Brands Award

Commenting on the product, Pentland Brands creative director, Gareth Davies, said: “A fantastic researched product that has been made from industrial carpet waste that is up-cycled to create a new, innovative product.”

On her creation, Astilean said: “The project is exploring ways in which industrial offcuts of carpet can be re-used. It brings a new methodology to the design of processes, products and services by looking at raw materials both in terms of their intrinsic value and how, at the end of that product’s useful life, they can be taken apart and recycled into products that have value and sophistication beyond their original use.”

As the winner of the New Designers Pentland Brands award Astilean wins a two-month, paid placement within Pentland Brands design team.

New Designers exhibition names 2016 winners

New Designers covers a range of creative disciplines including textiles and fashion, costume design, jewellery and precious metalwork, graphic design, furniture, and motion and digital arts.

Other fashion winners included Rhianna Parker-Yates from Falmouth University whose collection of woven textiles won the New Designers John Lewis Award for Design and Innovation. Parker-Yates won 1,000 pounds as well as an opportunity to meet the John Lewis head office team to discuss her product and design ambitions.

West Kent College graduate Cripa Yangkhrung was awarded the New Designers Hainsworth Statement Award for her handmade fashion collection inspired by nature and its elements. She impressed judges with her “excellent vision and concept”, as well as “exceptional attention to detail and craftsmanship”. Yangkhrung wins a 1,000 pounds that can be used on Hainsworth cloth, as well as a visit to the Hainsworth Mill.

Image: Tereza Astilean courtesy of Pentland Brands