Winners of Design Bridge 'The Start' competition begin junior programme

The winners of Design Bridge’s ‘The Start,’ the design agency’s annual design competition in collaboration with UK newspaper The Guardian, were offered spaces on ‘The Start’ junior programme at Design Bridge London.

Each year the Design Bridge London studio runs their competition inviting final year students to respond to a brief. However, with Covid-19 especially young people, Design Bridge decided to evolve the competition initiative for 2021 into a broader, more widely accessible and inclusive junior programme, re-named The Start. The programme is now open to applicants from any background, not just universities, in the hope that this will inspire a more diverse generation to get involved, and potentially win a year’s contract at the agency. 2021 also marks the first year for the competition to include creative, client management and strategy categories.

The competition tasked applicants to respond to The Guardian’s New Year’s Day 2021 edition, to create a brand-led response from one of the published stories, showing what they felt 2021 should look like. The applicants were asked to select a specific headline or news story from the 2021 New Year’s Day edition which inspired them, and then choose from a list of brands, including some of Design Bridge’s existing clients, to base their work around. 

“We’ve designed The Start brief specifically to be open to interpretation, allowing entrants to be really creative with their responses to drive positive change. Despite all of the challenges and uncertainties that young people have faced since the start of the pandemic, we have once again been blown away by the standard of work submitted,” says Claire Robertshaw, executive creative director at Design Bridge London.

The shortlisted creative projects were judged by a select panel of Design Bridge employees and other creative guests. The first place winner project, created by Norwich University students Katie Collins and Lexi Lane, is titled ‘Home Away From Home.' It took inspiration from a 2020 The Guardian article entitled ‘2020-The Story of a Year in 12 Leaders,’ which included a section on the UN and the quote, “The number of refugees settled in safe places is at a record low.” Using this as a springboard, the two students designed an Ikea home furnishing range using patterns made by individuals who had been displaced. Investing in the different stories through Ikea helped to fund The Ikea Foundation, which aids and supports refugees.