Surtex announces student design contest winners

Home Textiles Today Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 4/20/2011 9:55:43 AM

White Plains, N.Y. - Four students from schools in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom have been named winners in the Surtex 2011 designext student competition and will have their designs displayed during the upcoming Surtex show, which runs May 15-17 at the Javits Center in New York City.
For this year's contest, students were asked to create a collection of original surface designs to be used in a commercial interior in the year 2020. The winners are:

• Keia Barua of Savannah, GA, a senior student in the Fibers Department at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA.
• Jane Bridges of Bradford, United Kingdom, a third-year student in the Department of Contemporary Surface Design & Textiles at Bradford School of Arts & Media.
• Melodie Flook of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, a third-year student in the Department of Crafts and Design at the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Oakville, Ontario.
• Louise Tiler of Leeds, United Kingdom, a third-year student in the Department of Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern at the Leeds College of Art.

Winners were picked by a panel of industry professionals, including: Violet Brandwein of Kate's Paperie; Henny Lakin of Creative Bath Products, Inc.; Diane Piemonte of Revman International; Ronald Redding of York Wallcoverings, and Eddie Ross of Eddie Ross, Inc.

"Our student design competition dates to the very beginning of Surtex itself 25 years ago," said Penny Sikalis, show manager and vp of show organizer GLM. "We have always felt that it's vitally important to nurture the next wave of designers."