Apple designer Richard Howarth gives a little back

It’s always heart-warming to see someone doing something good for good reason, so hats-off to Apple industrial designer, Richard Howarth, who has donated an annual award of £4,250 to help young designers get into the creative industry.

Building the future

Why is he doing it? It’s because in 1994 he won an RSA Student Design Award and received a bursary of £4,250, which he used to travel to Japan for a work placement with Sony. He says:

“I don’t know how else I would have done it. It kickstarted my career and was genuinely lifechanging.”

This week the RSA is launching the inugural Richard Howarth Award. Howarth will donate £4,250 a year that will be split between two winners of the RSA Student Design Awards, who he will personally select. Here’s a link to this year’s winners and a showcase of their work.

The winners are Alec Machin, who is entering his fourth year of Product Design & Manufacture at the University of Nottingham and Joel August Stein, now entering his third year of Product & Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Richard personally selected the work based the winners’ outstanding enthusiasm and commitment to the practice and breadth of design.

The winners

Alec’s winning entry was Decorate Paints: a new paint container that reduces both paint and packaging waste. The container has a one-way pouring valve that prevents paint drying out and the whole product can be recycled. Alec identified the huge problem around short-life paint containers and 50 million litres of wasted paint in the UK each year, responding with this ingenious, holistic solution.

Joel’s winning entry was Hipa: a personal digital health assistant and communication device for staff in hospitals. Scientific studies have shown that hospitals are some of the most stressful working environments; HIPA is a personal digital health assistant and a future communication system for staff in hospitals.

Joel said:

‘This is a huge achievement for me. To get recognition from the RSA and from one of my idols Richard Howarth is something you can only dream of – and suddenly that dream has become a reality. The RSA has definitely opened me up to a new design perspective, and given me insights and tools that I will use in my work from now on.’

The 2014-15 RSA Student Design Awards briefs will launch online at sda.thersa.orgon 1^st September, followed by a launch event at the RSA on 17^th September.

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