Offshore Achievement Awards launch search for trophy designer
October 2015
Today sees the launch of the trophy design competition run by the Offshore Achievement Awards.
Each year, OAA sets 3rd year Product Design students from Gray’s School of Art the task of creating a trophy which reflects the themes of the awards –innovation, collaboration and creativity.
This year, the competition is supported by Principal Sponsor TAQA and 13 students will present their initial concepts at TAQA House on the 5th of November. They will then go on to construct prototypes for judging at MAKE on the 19th of November.
2015 winner, Alexandra Pate was chosen for her innovative design:
“My design was inspired by the underground pattern of the deviated wells, where the pipelines diverged from the oil rig itself, creating natural flowing lines into the sea floor. This stimulated an idea for the main section of the award, where the pipeline capillaries would be the foundation of the product. This framework then allowed me to build onto it, as stainless steel is a robust metal. The top of the award is a black obsidian ball, formed naturally from cooled lava. I felt this would be a good feature as the colour of the ball represents the oil while the spherical nature is an aesthetically pleasing shape. The base is constructed out of a combination of granite and clear resin, where the resin was simply pourer over the granite and left to set. I chose granite to represent Aberdeen, which is informally known as ‘the Granite City’. Granite also ensured that the award was bottom heavy. The resin was an obvious choice as it was easy to work with and gave the effect of the piping going into the water.”
We look forward to seeing this year’s entries and wish all students the best of luck!
