Design student awarded dream trip overseas

Marli de Wet, a student from Design Time School of Interior Design, is the 2017 Caesarstone Student Designer Competition.

Marli, together with her lecturer Anel Joubert, walked away with an all-expenses paid trip to the value of R100 000 to an international design fair of their choice.

This year’s competition brief- ‘Boosting Africa’s economy through creativity’- looked at how architecture can empower cultural and creative industries-  a concept by Mphethi Morojele, Director of MMA Design Studio.

Each year, South African design students experience the highest level of design from international fairs such as Salone del Mobile and Eurocucina in Milan, Maison&Objet in Paris and IMM in Cologne. The finalists also present the countries’ leading design experts. To date, three of the nine finalists have been interviewed for positions in local design firms.

The final set of entries unearthed the dynamic innovations of South Africa’s future design landscape.  Students share their design skills to create innovatively designed spaces and carefully curated ideas. The esteemed judges were Stefan Antoni of SAOTA, Jonathan Anstey of Anstey Architect, Mphethi Morojele of MMA Design Studio and Dorothy van’t Riet of DVR.

A cash prize of R15000 was awarded to 1st runner-up, Hsu Yi Hua from BHC School of Design. His lecturer was Marga de Vos.

Second runner-up position was awarded to Carolynn Innes also from Design Time School of Interior Design, who received R5000.

“I’ve never enjoyed a brief like this before. It meant a lot to me that it had a lot to do with helping people, and a real-time growth in our economy and not just something that looks good” says winner, Marli de Wet.

“The emerging design talent is an inspiration for the industry and this year the entries set a new benchmark. The thought processes and applications stretch beyond the expected work of tertiary design students,” comments Trevor King, Marketing Director of Caesarstone.

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