It’s that time of year again. The team went over to Islington’s Business Design Centre, judging talent at the 30th New Designers graduate exhibition. Awarding our 6th Cyber-Duck Associate Prize, we were searching for a charismatic young designer, with an inspiring final project. 

At New Designers, we were looking for a project that was engaging, innovative and commercially viable. Along the way, graduates must show their research and development process, justifying each design decision. Plenty of projects caught our attention. The high standard of many graduates’ work meant our decision was much trickier than expected.

Our Winner: Project Locon

Our well-deserved winner was Lauren Atwell, from the University of Dundee! The team loved Project Locon: an educational app that helps engage young children with local conservation. We liked how she articulated the thought process and research findings that inspired the digital interface, connecting children and nature.

Overall, we found Lauren’s approach to the original ‘problem’ most impressive. Preferring to play indoors on their tablets, many children aren’t engaged with nature or learning about their local environment. Instead of taking away the digital interface, she understood the emotional attachment children have with these devices. She created a way to educate them about nature in a fun, gamified way. Lauren was our winner, as we highly value this kind of problem-solving, user-centred design process at Cyber-Duck.

After awarding the prize, our judges enjoyed sitting down with Lauren to learn more about her background, interests and what motivates her as a designer. We were very happy with our decision!