27 Jun 2001
GE Plastics announces prize winners in the European Student Design Competition ‘Merging Boundaries’
Rüsselsheim, June 27, 2001 – GE Plastics announced today the prize winners of the Merging Boundaries design competition. European students of industrial design were invited to create and develop innovative ideas for the application of products with functions that crossover the traditional application boundaries (i.e mobile phones and computers) as well as boundaries between workplace, household and leisure pursuits.
The First Prize, of € 5,000, was awarded to Dror Benshetrit for his design concept ‘Thumber – mouse device’. Three Best-of-Design awards, each receiving
€ 2,000, were presented to the following participants: Nony Kamm with ‘The Opal – portable laundry basket’, Daniela Cristofori with ‘Freddy – a product for tracking children’, and Mieke Ummels and Myung Visser with their project ‘Where do sirenes bath at home’.
The winning design concepts will be displayed on the GE Plastics Europe exhibition stand at ‘K 2001’, the plastics industry’s most important trade show, held in Düsseldorf, Germany from October 25 to November 1, 2001.
The prize winners were selected from more than 60 design concepts, encompassing the three areas for exploration: ‘Personal Communication’, ‘Butlers on the Home Front’ and ‘An Assistant in the Work Environment’.
On June 26, 2001, jury panel of international experts deliberated and selected the winners based on the following criteria: creativity and originality, functional integration, creative use of technology, optimal utilization of GE engineering plastics and value to the end-user.
The jury members were Carsten Astheimer (Pininfarina Extra, Turin, Italy), Sophie Lattes (Studio Edelkoort, Paris, France), Jens Pattberg (Siemens’ subsidiary Designafairs GmbH, Munich, Germany) and Dick Powell (Seymour Powell Design, London, United Kingdom).GE Plastics Europe was represented by Richard Pieters (Marketing Manager Telecom) and Geert Jan Schellekens (Lead Automotive Designer).
During his award address, the Chairman of the jury, Dick Powell, stated “ the entries represented a very broad spectrum of different design approaches, ranging from the strongly philosophical to the basically practical. Most of the design concepts focused on combining the unique versatility of engineering plastics with modern advances in telecommunications and electronics to help create a more personal and flexible environment that allows the integration of life at home and at work with leisure pursuits.”
The GE Plastics Merging Boundaries student design competition encourages designers to bypass barriers, opening up the perception of plastics and the range of their applications and how they interface with form and function. Given the importance of designers, in developing individual products and in stetting trends, the competition aims to bridge the gap between educational theory and industrial practice of designing in engineering plastics materials.
Previous GE Plastics competitions have repeatedly led to successful design careers, while designers’ creative insights are invaluable to GE Plastics as an engineering materials producer because they help stimulate materials research and development processes, enabling to deliver industry leading product technology that customers have come to expect of GE Plastics.
All rights to the concepts and designs remain the property of the participating students. GE Plastics’ major interest is to demonstrate the versatility of engineering thermoplastics, and stimulate a dialog with the industry concerning the tremendous possibilities of new products and applications.
For more details about the winning design concepts and the competition itself, please visit www.mergingboundaries.com, a web site dedicated to the design competition. It enables access to a full range of services from materials data and application case-studies through to 2001 prize winners, technical support and hot links to related information sources.
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Notes for editors
GE Plastics is a leading global manufacturer of high performance engineering thermoplastics, with manufacturing facilities and technology and innovation centers around the world. GE Plastics supplies a spectrum of high performance resins and application development resources to help its customers achieve a competitive edge through performance and design differentiation. The global turnover of GE Plastics was $ 7 billion in 1999. The company has 10 manufacturing plant sites and 15 technology and application development centers and commercial offices located around the world. Further information can be obtained at www.geplastics.com.
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Related images
Dror Benshetrit (middle) receives First Prize of the GE Plastics Merging Boundaries European Student Design Competition from Art Harper,
CEO GE Plastics Europe.
Dick Powell, Chairman of the Jury for the GE Plastics Merging Boundaries European Student Design Competition.
Jury and Prize Winners of the GE Plastics Merging Boundaries European Student Design Competition.
From left to right: Nony Kamm, Jens Pattberg, Dror Benshetrit, Dick Powell, Mieke Ummels, Richard Pieters, Sophie Lattes, Myung Visser, Geert Jan Schellekens, Daniela Cristofori and Carsten Astheimer.
Dror Benshetrit, First Prize winner of the GE Plastics Merging Boundaries European Student Design Competition.
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