V&A Dundee launches new student design competition

The V&A Museum of Design Dundee has launched a competition to design a box, which will be filled with essential items for babies and sent out to families.

The National Baby Boxes initiative, delivered by the Scottish government, will see every newborn baby in Scotland receive a box full of clothes, bedding, books and mother and baby care products.

The design competition is being run by the new V&A Dundee, and invites college and university students across the country to create concepts for the surface print of the box.

The brief has three key points – the surface design must be inspired by the United Nations Convention on children’s rights, and draw on ideas such as the right to play or the right to family life; the lid must be customised to allow families to interact with the box, such as by recording details like the baby’s name, date of birth and weight; and the box should “excite families” and “make them smile”, as well as be a long-term, practical keepsake.

The prize for the winning designer is £1,000 in cash, as well as mentoring from Scottish designers Holly Fulton and Scott Jarvie.

The winning design will go into production and will roll out on the boxes, which will be sent to every family with a newborn child in Scotland from summer 2017 until March 2019.

The closing date for submissions is 5pm on 17 November 2016. Concepts should be emailed as a pdf of less than 10MB to alice.moore@vandadundee.org.

For more information on the brief and on how to enter, head here.