A century of innovation

Summary

The RSA Student Design Awards (SDAs) recently celebrated their 100th anniversary. This year’s ceremony highlighted diverse and impactful student projects, with 375 entries submitted from 81 institutions. Notable winners featured in this piece facilitated innovative solutions in AI, community-driven projects and sustainable design. The SDAs are now set to merge with other RSA awards under one banner, RSA Spark, to further their impact and inclusivity. 

Reading time

Three minutes

From its ‘Industrial Designs’ competition in 1924 to the Student Design Awards of 2024, the RSA has long celebrated innovative solutions to social and environmental challenges. Now enter RSA Spark.

My journey with the RSA’s Student Design Awards (SDAs) goes back a long way. Not quite the 100 years that the awards have been in existence, but a significant period of my working life.

I judged the awards in 2008, taught students the SDA briefs as a lecturer between 2010 and 2020, and was a partner of the SDAs, offering an internship as a prize at the design agency I led, in 2016. Now, I work on the awards from within the RSA, and had the pleasure of announcing the 100-year anniversary winners in the Great Room of RSA House this past July.

The SDAs mean a lot to me, and they certainly mean a lot to the students recognised each year, many of whom go on to enjoy incredible careers in design and shape our society for the better. More than 110,000 students have collaborated on 2,000 briefs over the century. Past winners include Richard Howarth, Vice President of Design at Apple; fashion designer Betty Jackson; and David Carter, the industrial designer responsible for the Stanley knife and LeShuttle trains.

This year’s SDA celebration was special in many ways. Hosting a once-in-a-lifetime event is, of course, an honour in itself. But the latest ceremony also included inspirational speeches from renowned landscape architect Andrew Grant and past finalist Nathan Addai, plus a personal story from Jonathan Carter (David Carter’s son).

Designers of the future

And we must not forget this year’s crop of winners. A summary of the award-winning projects shows the range of the successful entries across the six briefs:

• In Your Skin: Ailsa Smith (1), Arts University Bournemouth. Ailsa’s XPOSURE suncare brand targets young men in construction careers. (In partnership with Skin Health Alliance and Bond & Coyne).

• Flourishing Places: Dougal Cusack Brown (2), Kingston University. Dougal’s Chatham Mussel project involves a community-driven mussel farm. (In partnership with Arup)

• Apply AI: Betha Suwarso (3), University of the Arts London. Betha’s Beta Electronics solution offers a holistic approach to electronic recycling and education. (In partnership with Google DeepMind)

• Caring Culture: Abhipsha Ray, Royal College of Art. Abhipsha’s Balance platform provides families with the tools to share care-giving insights. (In partnership with the Rayne Foundation)

• Made Natural: Karina Gunadi, Richard Alexandre, Blake Goodwyn and Tanghao Yu, Royal College of Art. The team’s Pyri project is a wildfire detection system made from nature-based materials. (In partnership with Kew with support from Natracare)
• Centenary Celebrations: Teo Hennessy, Limerick School of Art and Design. Teo’s Through the Centuries animation shows the SDA journey using graphic shapes, distinctive colour and striking form. (In partnership with the Marketing Trust)

For the 100th year of the competition, we also partnered with the Anjool Maldé Memorial Trust on two awards:

• Young Innovator of the Year: Tess Taylor, Arts University Bournemouth. Tess’s Terra Hex project involves an AI soil sensor that promotes regenerative agriculture. Part of the Apply AI brief. (In partnership with Google DeepMind)
• Centenary Design Award: Rachel Cartledge, Edinburgh Napier University. Rachel’s From the Ground Up animation showcases the innovation of previous SDA winners. Part of the Centenary Celebrations brief. (In partnership with the Marketing Trust)

This year’s SDAs garnered 375 submissions from 81 colleges and universities around the world. We sought to make this the most inclusive competition to date, as well as encouraging entries from non-design disciplines.

The next 100 years

The secret to creating impact is to not stand still — and that is certainly the case with the SDAs. Starting life in 1924 as Industrial Designs, they have had various names over the years, including the Industrial Art Bursaries Competition, Design Bursaries and Design Directions.

For some time we have been reimagining what the world needs from the next 100 years of RSA awards. The result is a decision to bring the SDAs together with the RSA’s Pupil Design Awards and Catalyst Enterprise Grants for greater impact, to form RSA Spark: a global programme offering inspiring real-world experiences to create, connect, grow and make a difference.

RSA Spark will welcome pupils from across the globe aged 11–17, students 18+ and entrepreneurs of all ages and their educators — the only requirement is having a passion for doing more good for people, places and the planet.

It will build on all we have learned over the past 100 years, and go even further, continuing to encourage creativity to change tomorrow and igniting ideas for action towards a positive world. Please join us as this journey starts its second century.

Dr Joanna Choukeir is the RSA’s Director of Design and Innovation.

This feature first appeared in RSA Journal Issue 3 2024.