Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – 13.08.2010

Firstly we would like to thank everyone who participated in the inaugural Embody 3D Australian Student Industrial Design Writing Competition. Myself along with the other judges had a great time looking over all the entries and the standard was exceptional. The quality and quantity of written material we received was truly overwhelming, which made our decision extremely difficult to formulate.

We knew from the get go that we would receive a diverse range of entries because of the open nature of the brief, which was just to write! We wanted to make this competition as accessible and open as possible, no strict guidelines and no costly expenses. We were interested to see what people would come up with and how students would interpret the brief according to the original judging criteria:

• The overall quality of the submission including correct grammar, spelling and professionalism • The amount of original creative content utilised in the article • The level of detail and journalistic exploration. • The use of new and mixed media • The ability of the submission to appeal to a broad range of designers

We found the best entries were ones that were entertaining and well structured. Entries that were in a list format were really easy to follow and engaging not just to literary designers but also ‘casual or amateur designers’. A lot of submissions were in a real formal essay format, and some of these were highly educational and explored some intricate concepts, whilst others were perhaps too broad or sometimes lost relevance to industrial design. However in saying this we were totally amazed with what everyone came up with. We were really encouraged to see a healthy community of student designers keen on documenting and sharing their experiences and knowledge for all to benefit. This is what Embody 3D is all about!

It gives me great pleasure to announce the winners of the inaugural Embody 3D Australian Student Industrial Design Writing Competition.

1st Prize

Monique De Souza – University of Technology Sydney – INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, I KNOW

• $500 Rapid Prototyping Voucher courtesy of 3D Prototyping • Educational Licence of Solidworks courtesy of Dassault Systèmes and Solidwork Asia Pacific • Graphics Tablet courtesy of Wacom

2nd Prize

Glenn Dwyer – University of South Australia – 7 practices of a good product designer

• $250 Rapid Prototyping Voucher courtesy of 3D Prototyping • Educational Licence of Maxwell Render courtesy of Next Limit • Premium Stationary Pack courtest of Blink Product Design

3rd Prize

Sarah-Jayne McCreath – Queensland University of Technology – Character of Character

• $100 Rapid Prototyping Voucher courtesy of 3D Prototyping • $50 Click to Make Voucher courtesy of Ponoko

Once again thanks so much to everyone who submitted an entry and we hope in the future to hold more competitions and even competitions open to people from around the world and of any age. We hope you enjoyed writing your entry and we hope you found it beneficial to your course work. We will publish some of the entries over the next coming weeks and months on the Embody 3D Blog – www.embody3d.com.

Our Generous Sponsors

We would also like to thank our generous sponsors for providing the prizes and supporting Australia’s Industrial Design Community. This competition wouldn’t have been possible without their support and we hope in turn you would support their products and services:

3D Prototyping – Australia’s best quality and best value for money rapid prototyping Solidworks – Let’s face it when you need something modelled for manufacturing there is only one program to use Solidworks! Maxwell Render – When you need a photo real render for your project, ‘wow’ your clients and lecturers with Maxwell! Wacom – Increase your productivity with a Wacom graphics tablet. It works great on the Adobe Suite and even Cad! Ponoko – Truly the world’s easiest making system! If you need a short production run or a prototype get it all done by someone else! Use Ponoko! Blink Product Design – For custom designed stationary try Blink Product Design. It looks hot!

Our Judges

We would also like to thank the judges of the competition who gave up their time to read through all the articles in their entirety (it certainly takes a lot longer to judge than a normal design competition!)

• Vivian Kwok – From Embody 3D

• Sebastian Zolotarev – From Embody 3D

• Michael Shoebridge – From Loft Creations

Don’t Stop Writing

At Embody 3D we are always looking for guest or continual writers to contribute articles as it is our aim to share knowledge and build networks. So if you are ever keen on writing any more articles please get in touch because we would love to hear from you. Thanks to everyone once again for participating!