Lucy Polson, a textile design, sustainable coloration student from Massey University in New Zealand has been announced as the winner of the SDC International Design Competition 2018. The announcement was made at a prestigious awards event held as part of SDC’s recent Colouring the Future conference in London.
The competition is a key part of SDC's engagement with universities, delivering colour education to fashion and design students. The competition was sponsored by Archroma and the links to The Color Atlas by Archroma were key to both the competition theme and the accompanying educational package. The Color Atlas by Archroma was created to easily bring colour creativity and manageability to an entire new level for stylists and designers, brands and retailers, and their suppliers, the company explains.
The competition judges were: Tamsin Cook, head of design at Stanley/Stella in Belgium; Naomi New, design manager at River Island in the UK; and Afsana Ferdousi, fashion designer at Team Sourcing in Bangladesh.
Polson was chosen over 13 other finalists, representing countries including Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, China, Portugal, Pakistan, South Africa, the US and the UK. All entries had to show evidence of using colour as an integral component of the design process as well as incorporating this year’s theme of Colour Communication.
Polson commented at the awards: "What a fantastic few days, I am so grateful to have had such a wonderful opportunity. I have just completed my final year of a Bachelor of Design majoring in Textiles at Massey University, New Zealand. My passion lies in print design, digital embroidery and dye. I was honoured to be selected to attend the grand final of the competition and represent Australia/New Zealand. I had the opportunity to meet like-minded designers and make industry contacts on a global scale.
“The conference allowed me to deepen my understanding of colour solutions and sustainability and I feel privileged to be a part of such a supportive network. My work for the competition focused on sourcing naturally dyed colours that matched bright colours chosen from Achroma's Color Atlas. Next year I would like to widen my knowledge about the fashion and textile industry. I hope to achieve this by gaining a role in a company which has a focus on material innovation and sustainability.”
Competition judge Tamsin Cook added: “Lucy’s enthusiasm and passion for colours shone through in her work. She had spent time experimenting and exploring dyeing techniques, her use of colour was beautiful, and she displayed simple patterns and shapes to form a modern and graphic display on a simple dress shape. She took influences from African street style/graffiti, the results were a timeless display of culture meeting art, her style unique, it was refreshing to see new influences and colour combinations.
“It was such a pleasure to be part of the SDC Colouring the Future event. An honour to be part of the judging panel, meeting young talented students from across the globe. All winners in their own right, they each displayed beautiful, inspiring work which proved the next generation are eager to make a change in the fashion and textile industry for a better and more sustainable future. Held in the Art Worker’s Guild, the perfect location to bring a creative community together, to share ideas and discuss the future of fashion and sustainability.”
The runners up were Mingcheng Zhang from Anhui Polytechnic University in China and Yasemin Yasar from Nottingham Trent University in the UK.
Competition judge Naomi New commented: “The standard of the work was extremely high, and it was a pleasure to speak with such passionate students, whom I’m sure will all go on to have very exciting careers in design”.
Lucy goes home with the £1,000 cash prize and the Veronica Bell trophy. The trophy is in honour of the late Dr Veronica Bell, (an SDC past-president) to acknowledge excellence in the field of colour and design.
Archroma’s sponsorship will continue for the 2019 competition. The theme for 2019 is Colour and Nature.
