Latest news from Loughborough University
21 October 2008 - PR 08/149
Graduate wins national award for British icon-inspired designs
Former Loughborough University Art and Design student Fiona Battersby has won the Nokia Student Design Competition 2008.
Fiona, who graduated last July with a degree in Illustration, entered
the UK strand of the international competition to create removable
mobile covers and wallpaper for a new range of multimedia 3G phones,
which were released in the summer.
Students from leading British design schools were invited to the company’s design headquarters in London in May, where they were given a brief to create designs that could be downloaded by customers in Nokia’s flagship worldwide stores.
Fiona’s designs capitalise on modern British icons, including
the renaissance in fashion design for the quintessential pinstripe
suit and the fondness for that British industrial design classic,
the traditional red phone box.
Fiona is thrilled by her success in the competition. “It’s
a great start to my career as an illustrator and designer,”
she said. “Working for a client like Nokia before I graduated
was certainly a good introduction to my CV.”
Andrew Selby, Programme Coordinator for Visual Communication at Loughborough, believes the accolade is well deserved. “Fiona rose to the challenge set by Nokia with an exciting collection of designs that acknowledged the forward-thinking emphasis that the company place on design,” Andrew said.
Loughborough University’s Visual Communication programmes have an impressive history of attracting high calibre live design projects. Previous student projects have been set by DHL Worldwide, Oxford University Press and fashion designer Paul Smith.
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For all media enquiries contact:
Hannah Baldwin
Head of PR
Loughborough University
T: 01509 222239
E: H.E.Baldwin@lboro.ac.uk
Notes for editors:
Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research, strong links with industry and unrivalled sporting achievement.
It was awarded the coveted Sunday Times University of the Year 2008-09 title, and is consistently ranked in the top fifteen of UK universities in national newspaper league tables. In the 2008 National Student Survey, Loughborough was voted one of the top five universities in the UK, with 22 out of 30 of its subject areas being ranked in the top ten for overall satisfaction. It was named winner of the 2006 and 2007 Times Higher award for the UK’s Best Student Experience and winner of the 2007 award for Outstanding Support for Overseas Students. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, the University has been awarded six Queen's Anniversary Prizes – an achievement bettered by no other institution.
It is a member of the esteemed 1994 Group – a set of internationally recognised, research-intensive universities – and has a reputation for the relevance of its work. Its degree programmes are highly regarded by professional institutions and businesses, and its graduates are consistently targeted by the UK’s top recruiters.
Loughborough is also the UK’s premier university for sport. It has perhaps the best integrated sports development environment in the world and is home to some of the country’s leading coaches, sports scientists and support staff. It also has the country’s largest concentration of world-class training facilities across a wide range of sports.