ASFD announces Student Design Challenge winners

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, January 17, 2012

Stanley Furniture will show a prototype of the Driftwood Writing Desk, designed by ASFD Student Design Challenge winner Jacob Court, in its High Point Market showroom this spring.

NEW LONDON, N.C. — Jacob Court, a senior at Kendall College of Art and Design, has won first place in the American Society of Furniture Designers' inaugural student design contest.

Court's winning entry, the Driftwood Writing Desk, will be produced as a prototype by Stanley Furniture, a partner in the ASFD contest, and will be on display in the company's High Point Market showroom in April.

In a statement announcing the winners, ASFD said that along with Stanley it "successfully formatted a competition that was a benefit to design students, added excitement to the design program curriculums and continues to foster student mentoring."

Called the Student Design Challenge 2011 and announced in July, the contest was open to junior, senior and graduate level students in accredited college design programs. The goal was to create a writing desk or executive desk that could transition into one of four style categories in the Stanley product line.

A panel of ASFD member furniture designers and Stanley executives judged the entries on the criteria of presentation, creativity, originality, selection of materials and feasibility of manufacturing.

Cash prizes of $1,000 for first, $500 for second and $300 for third were made possible by the ASFD scholarship fund and a sponsorship by Zenith Global Logistics. All winners and honorees also receive a free one-year membership to ASFD.

Second place went to Daniel Jacobs and third went to Jacob Blok. Both are juniors at Kendall.

Honorable mentions went to Susannah Dirkse, a senior at Kendall; Christopher Eitel, a junior at Kendall; and Jerri Hobdy, a junior, and Joseph Willet, a senior, at Savannah College of Art and Design, who cooperated on a desk design.