BE OPEN and SBID Designed for Business: £30,000 Prize Winner Will Be Revealed at the House of Commons November 29, 2018

LONDON, November 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Designed for Business Competition finalists and key names from the design business community and academia will gather at the House of Commons, Westminster, Thursday evening for a glittering prize-giving ceremony, the culmination of the year-long competition that involved the leading schools across the country that teach creative disciplines. It is a unique collaboration between The Society of British & International Design (SBID) and BE OPEN, the humanitarian think tank founded by international philanthropist and entrepreneur Elena Baturina.  

SBID and BE OPEN created the competition in a bid to showcase emerging talent in each industry, to promote equal opportunities and to nurture relationships between students and the working world. Both the teams were delighted with the enthusiastic response to the competition from both students and creative course leaders at leading universities.

Hundreds of graduate students put forward submissions for five different award categories: Interior Design, Interior Decoration, Fashion, Art & Design and Product Design over the course of the summer. Expert judges from relevant industries and academia, including Trustee of the Design Museum in London Sebastian Conran, Jane Hay, International Managing Director of Christie's Education, Guangci Qu, a contemporary Chinese sculptor and Philippa Newman, Design Manager at John Lewis, looked for qualities, such as originality of expression, individualism, creative use of materials and presentation skills.

As well as the overall winner leaving with a cash prize of £30,000, winners from each category will receive £1,000, plus recognition for their university.

SBID founder Dr Vanessa Brady OBE, says: "SBID has been running student competitions for several years and it has been proven that students have the talent, training and tenacity to achieve great things. Yet what students need is a job and money; with this competition someone could become instantly debt-free, or in the position to create business start-up self-funded - it may inspire a generation of creatives."

BE OPEN founder Elena Baturina, says: "I am thoroughly impressed by the calibre of entries and the thinking behind each of the finalists' works. I'm hoping that this partnership with SBID will help to drive more engagement with young designers from the businesses that will be relying on their creativity in the years to come. I'm very excited to see what our winner and finalists will achieve next."