Final three selected in Natural History Museum products prize

Three students have been shortlisted in a competition run by Birmingham City University and the Natural History Museum to create a product that could potentially go on sale at the NHM.

The competition was open to second-year students in product and textile design at BCU, who were asked to work up a new sustainable product that would carry NHM branding. The NHM approached the university in May last year after seeing work by its students at the Interiors 2008 show.

The shortlisted three, who were selected from a longlist of 13, are: textile designer Sophie Strickson, who has designed a woven textile mat using recycled cassette tapes; textile designer Francesca Isabel Isaacs, who has created digitally printed camouflage beach towels; and product designer Kyle Cadmore, who has designed the Grow Box, a recycled cardboard box containing cotton wool and varieties of edible plants.