Design students Akaash Dewan and Florianne Rousse Marquet bag international award

Designing it right, making city proud

Design students Akaash Dewan and Florianne Rousse Marquet bag International award

It is a great honour for 20-year-olds when they win awards for their creativity at an international competition. Two city students, Akaash Dewan and Florianne Rousse Marquet of the DSK Supinfocom International School of Design, competed against participants from 28 countries and bagged gold and bronze awards respectively.

Bravo! Guilaume Zaslavsky, head, product design, DSK ISD, student Akaash Dewan, winner at International Design Excellence Award, and Phillip Vahe, head of studies, Industrial School of Design, DSK

The third year students of the product design course made the city proud at the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) awards, where around 2,000 projects were submitted.

All the designs were displayed to the international jury without the name of the student or the institute. It was only after the selection of the winners that the details were displayed with the winning designs.

Only three students won the gold award at the competition. An international jury chaired by John Barratt, IDSA, president and CEO of Teague, selected the winners.

Akaash, who is currently doing his internship with a French design company, said he did not expect the gold award at all.

"I wasn't very confident of winning the award," he said. "I don't know why, but I was not expecting it at all!"

Humane rat trap

Called ONEDOWN, Akaash's submission was a humane rat trap.

Resting precariously in a horizontal position on a circular foot, the trap uses a bait to lure the rat into it, and a metal insert in the base coupled with the weight of the rat tip the trap to bring it to a vertical position.

The rat is trapped but not hurt, and can then be released far away from human habitation instead of being killed.

"We had to choose a topic for the project from the given topics, then start research on it like studying conventional rat traps, reading a little about rats on things like what they see and what they eat, the different sizes of rats; basically, rat behaviour and biology," said Akaash.

"Then I started sketching different concepts in my mind, and after a discussion with my HoD Zed, I chose this concept and then developed it digitally."

Birdhouse
Florianne worked on a birdhouse a mini house for birds. Consumers can install it in a flowerpot on a
balcony, or just hang it from a tree branch, making it convenient for both urban and country environments. The top and bottom of the house are curved so that it can collect rainwater.

Competitive spirit
Akaash comes from a family in which everyone is involved with the media industry, including movies, television shows and TV commercials. So it came as a surprise when he chose to do something different.

But Akaash says his family has supported him throughout and without its support, the award would not have been possible.

He says apart from talent and winning in competitions, it is also important to have professional experience.
"I think it is better to have professional training as it gives a complete feel of the design industry and every project we do is like a competition," he said. "You have to approach everything with the idea that you will do it better than the other person."

When he is not thinking of product designs, Akaash spends his time collecting antiques like old vinyl records, cassettes and some retro designer products.