RSA STUDENT DESIGN AWARDS - RBS

CREATIVE CONDITIONS

BRIEF

DESIGN AND DEVELOP A VISION AND BUSINESS CASE FOR AN ENVIROMENT OR SITUATION THAT PROMPTS AND FOSTERS CREATIVE THINKING.

CHALLENGE AND SCOPE

This brief asks you to think about when and where people are most inspired and what are the conditions that best encourage and nurture creative thinking and innovation. You are asked to develop, design and communicate a vision that will inspire and delight, whilst also paying attention to the commercial realities of implementation.

You should anticipate how and when people are most creative, imaginative and productive – this could be in a learning environment, at work, at home, in the public realm (virtual or physical), or somewhere else entirely that unleashes individual and/or collective creativity.
Creativity is a strategic tool and, together with design thinking, it has been enthusiastically embraced by business in recent years; creative thinking is no longer viewed as an add-on incurring additional costs, but rather as a valuable tool that can determine how organisations and companies are run, structured and how they do business. As such, working out how to best foster and nurture creativity is becoming increasingly imperative to improve business growth and innovation and to find solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges.
You are asked to think about how creativity can be unleashed in a range of different contexts and fields, not just the traditional ‘creative industries.’ Different people and professions have different ways of doing things and so we want to open the context in which creativity is released and accepted. You may want to think about how various people can exercise and embrace creative thinking for the greatest social benefit – from school children to the teachers that teach them, from accountants to engineers, and from factory workers to office personnel. You are also encouraged to think about how creativity can benefit people in both a personal and professional context.
Your response should be built on strong human- centred research and insights, but the power of intuition should not be underestimated. Solutions from all disciplines are encouraged and welcomed, but proposals should be holistic in nature and entrants should bear in mind the offline and online incentives for people to inhabit, populate, acquire, or use your solution.
For the purposes of illustration, the following would all be viable responses:

a new vision for a classroom or school environment that encourages children to think creatively and learn in new ways
a design for a new public space that inspires collective creativity
a concept for a place of work that will encourage people to tackle issues differently in creative ways
an architectural or interior design solution that cultivates creativity and collaboration
a service design solution that helps people to be more innovative
a product or furniture design solution that anticipates and responds to people’s needs to work creatively
a holistic digital or online environment (such as an online forum, ‘chat room’, or video game) that stimulates imagination
a behaviour change strategy that fosters and supports acceptance of alternative ways of working
a communications campaign or social media solution

... and many others are possible.

AWARDS

RBS Award of £3500 for the best design project

RBS Award of £1000 for the best business case

The judging panel may decide on more than one winner and will allocate the cash awards accordingly. RBS will also consider a possible placement for the winning student/s and may help the winning student/s to have their project prototyped; this will be decided at RBS’s discretion.
In addition, all short-listed entrants will receive mentoring on their project and will be invited to the RBS Chairman’s Lunch in summer 2015.

JUDGING CRITERIA

1. Social and environmental benefit - 15%

How does your design benefit the environment and society?

2. Execution - 15%

Where did you go to research this issue? With whom did you speak or interview? What questions did you ask? What did you learn?

3. Research - 15%

We want to know about your thought processes and insights. Your insights might be research- based or intuitive, or a combination of both, but the judges want to see you relate the final concept clearly to these insights. What journey did you go through to get to the final result?

4. Design Thinking - 20%

Does your design make sense from a financial point of view?

5. Commercial Awareness - 15%

We are looking for a design that is pleasing and looks and feels well-resolved.

6. Magic - 20%

We are looking for a bit of ‘magic’ – a surprising or lateral design solution that delights.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

All entries must be submitted through our online entry system, accessed via sda.thersa.org. If you are unable to submit online, please contact us by email at: sdaenquiries@rsa.org.uk

Entries should comprise the following (please note there is an upload limit of 10mb on all files submitted):

4 x A3 PDFs (portrait or landscape), describing your proposal, your insights and research, the benefits you believe it will create, and possibilities of implementation and scalability
1 x A4 PDF or Word document of no more 250 words describing your ‘Big Idea’
no more than 10 scanned pages of your sketchbook or computer modelling/sketches (if applicable) illustrating your development process
business case: please write a business case for your proposal not to exceed 2 sides of an A4

RBS will be looking, in particular, for highly innovative and forward-thinking responses that could be adopted by employers or employees in both the short and long-term. Responses should demonstrate how the design might be implemented and applied in the real-world, in the future, with specific consideration to thorough research. The ingenuity of the solution will be a key factor when reviewing the entries.
Please note: your submissions must not have your name, university or other identifying marks on them to ensure that work is judged fairly. If any entries do contain entrant, college or tutor names, we will contact you and ask you to re- submit your work without these, or remove them ourselves.

COMMERCIAL AWARENESS WORKSHOPS

All entrants working on this brief will be invited to attend a workshop about how to develop and refine their commercial awareness skills, including how to develop a business plan, at an RBS office. These workshops will provide an opportunity for participating students to learn important skills that will be relevant for their responses to this brief and for their larger skill set. The workshops will be held during October and November 2014 and will be organised regionally to allow as many students as possible to attend. The locations are likely to be London and Edinburgh. Further information and confirmation of the dates for each region can be found on the RSA Student Design Awards website in coming weeks.

MENTORING

All short-listed entrants on this brief will be invited to a mentoring session with a designated mentor. The mentors will be matched to entrants based on the theme of the project. The mentors will help short-listed entrants develop their projects and prepare for interview, where possible.

RBS CHAIRMAN'S LUNCH

All short-listed students on this brief will be invited to attend a lunch and reception to celebrate their work at a major RBS office in London. This event is an opportunity for entrants to talk about their project with an informed and interested audience, which will included members of the RBS Executive Team and the Chairman of RBS. In addition, design industry representatives will be in attendance and students are encouraged to find out about professional opportunities in a range of businesses.

KEY DATES

5 Jan 15

Competition opens for entries

4 Feb 15

£25 early bird entry deadline

4 March 15

£35 final entry deadline

16 March 15

2-stage judging process begins

20 May 15

2014-15 winners announced