Glasgow 1999 Design Medal

Glasgow 1999 Design Medal, annually rewards excellence and innovation to the best design student from Glasgow’s higher and further education institutions. An annual exhibition is run in conjunction with the award.

The Glasgow 1999 Design Medal was created as a lasting legacy of Glasgow 1999, UK City of Architecture and Design, the Medal and a £1,000 travel bursary are presented annually to a graduate from one of the city’s institutions.

The Medal recognises the key role that higher and further education institutions play in nurturing young talent and celebrates a new generation of designers whose vision, skill and creativity will be vital to the future strength of the UK economy.

Winners

2008: Gavin Armstrong, Product Design Engineering, Glasgow School of Art
Project: Swath Invertor
‘Swath’ is an agricultural term given to a crop of grass that has been cut and left to dry before being baled as hay. The function of the Swath Inverter is to reduce its drying time.
How does it work?
The swath inverter is powered and towed by a standard tractor and uses a pair of parallel belts to invert the swath. Both belts have been twisted 180 degrees and follow one another’s curvature to ensure the crop is securely sandwiched between them. The rollers are driven from one hydraulic motor and are geared so that they both spin at the same speed and in opposite directions. This ensures that the touching inner two faces of the belt move rearwards at the same speed. It is these two faces that perform the inversion. To increase the effectiveness of inverting the swath the inverter also moves the crop onto dry ground to the left or right of the original swath position.

2007: Dieny Itoe, Fashion, Cardonald College
Project: Escapism
The fantastical worlds illustrated by Arthur Rackham for the tales of Rip Van Winkle, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Alice in Wonderland were the inspiration behind Dieny's collection.  Using imagery including birds and butterflies, stylised leaf shapes and decorative stonework, the garments played with volume and proportion, incorporating details such as oversized collars and layered skirts. 

"I used the bursary to fund flights to London, Florence, Iceland and Nicaragua during the summer break. I trawled through the vintage markets of Florence for textiles, ribbons, buttons and postcards and in Iceland, perused the Icelandic designer boutiques to research their unconventional cutting techniques. The painted colonial buildings of Nicaragua provided me with a beautiful colour study file."

2006: Stuart Gordon, Interior Design, GSA
Project: Children’s Hospice
The purpose of the Children’s Hospice is to provide physical, emotional and recreational care, for the child and their family. The vacant St Peter’s College in Cardoss, designed by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia was taken by Stuart as the proposed site of a hospice, selected for its close relationship with the surrounding woodland environment. Due to the building’s A grade status, extra care is required in the design of the interior spaces. The hospice is split into three functions: in-patients, out patients and staff areas, with the aim of combining calming reflective spaces with creative and imaginative environments. Stuart used different materials throughout the building to enhance spaces through smell and touch.

2005: Alan Boyd, Product Design Engineering, Strathclyde University
Project: Portable Hand-washing Station
In the last two decades hospital acquired infections have been recognised as a significant problem in terms of quality of care and cost for hospitals. Alan's design aimed to improve hygiene practice in hospitals by providing a portable hand washing system that can be used by a wide range of individuals in the ward environment, from doctors to patients. The accessible design, styled to include domestic product design features, incorporates carefully considered ergonomics that are both intuitive and functional. The self -cleaning rotating basin as well as the touch-free automatic function of the taps and soap dispenser was designed to optimise speed of operation and provide a more efficient and effective wash.

2004: Aileen Tan - Jewellery
Project: Kinetic jewellery
The main stimulus for this collection was the idea of the movement between the carriages on two tracks of a rollercoaster. Aileen's jewellery captured dramatic movement on a small scale. It explored weight, motion and gravity. Each ring was entirely handmade and finished and had to be absolutely accurate to maintain correct clearances and friction.

"9 Flights –3½ Weeks – 3 Time Zones – 2Continents – 1 Island – A tandem sky dive
THE EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME!
Hong Kong – Sydney – Fiji

I witnessed fire walking, fire dancing and learnt the art of using palm leaves to weave bags."

 

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