News Article

25th September 2014

Winners of the Caesarstone student designer competition announced

Caesarstone announced the top three winners of the Caesarstone Student Designer 2014 competition on Thursday 18 September in Cape Town.

An official World Design Capital 2014 event, the exciting evening kicked off with a dazzling performance by AnecNote – a local acapella group from the Cape, who wowed guests with their sultry harmonies. The 9 finalists’ designs were on display for the evening, allowing guests to engage with their responses to the Re_Charge brief, conceptualized by Cape Town architect and competition judge, Greg Wright. “The brief was a difficult one, and some students struggled to interpret it, but on the whole we were pleased with the level of design we saw across the competition finalists’ entries,” says Greg.

MC and a member of the judging panel, Stefan Antoni of SAOTA, congratulated all the finalists for their excellent submissions and encouraged design institutions to continue engaging in the Caesarstone student competition. “This is a really fantastic competition and I would encourage all of South Africa’s design institutions to be part of it for the design challenge, and the exposure for the students and their institutions,” says Stefan.

The audience was treated to a behind-the-scenes video of the judging process, where the full judging panel was interviewed for feedback on the entries and a deeper understanding of how the finalists were selected. The 2014 judging panel included: Greg Wright of Greg Wright Architects, Lisa Younger of Activate Architects, Dorothy van’t Riet of Dorothy van’t Riet Décor & Design, Jonathan Anstey of Jonathan Anstey Architects and Stefan Antoni of SAOTA.

Trevor King, marketing director of Caesarstone South Africa, thanked the students, their lecturers and the judges for their commitment to excellence in design and for entering the competition before the 9 finalists were awarded their certificates. Kim Penman of The Home Channel attended the awards evening, saying, “It was amazing to see the work and investment Caesarstone had made to future designers”.

The top 3 student designers were announced:
1st Place:
James Mayer, Tshwane University of Technology, Department of Interior Design, Lecturer: Rene van der Merwe
2nd Place:
Ian Winfield, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Department of Architecture, Lecturer: Donald Flint
3rd Place:
Dayle Wener, BHC School of Design, Department of Interior Design, Lecturer: Donna Fergus

The winning student and their lecturer will enjoy a trip to an international design fair of their choice worth R80,000, courtesy of Caesarstone. The runner up won R10,000 cash ,while the 2nd runner up won R5,000 cash.

All the competition videos, including the judges’ discussions on the top 3 designs, as well as the 2015 promotional video can be viewed at www.youtube.com/MyCaesarstoneSA.