Video: In conversation with the 2014–15 Future Pioneers

We asked the 2014–15 winners of Future Pioneers – our award to celebrate and nurture emerging designers who are principled, passionate and purposeful – to tell us more about their winning projects and what inspired them.

The Alternet by Sarah Gold

The Alternet is a proposal for an alternative internet that puts user privacy at its heart.

The Alternet moves you from being a disempowered consumer of the internet to being an empowered citizen of a network, which I think is a really important shift.

Sarah Gold

Objects tell stories by Ruby Davies

Objects tell stories is a service for condensing sentimental inherited items from passed-on loved ones to the essence of what makes them special, allowing the original objects to be disposed of.

Our emotions are valuable – they make us what we are, but they can be undervalued and put in a corner. I like to do the opposite of that.

Ruby Davies

 

PATCH by Grace Davies

PATCH is a social impact project that links allotment holders in Bristol with local food banks, reducing food waste and increasing awareness of food poverty.

Feeding people that are hungry – a really simple idea but one that can benefit loads of people.

Grace Davies

What If I Am Alone by Chia-Ju Lin

As part of Chia-Ju’s project What If I Am Alone, she created a first aid kit designed to help injured users administer first aid on themselves.

I bought a first aid kit and tried to do the treatments on myself and it’s very difficult. Even opening the package is a challenge if you are alone.

Chia-Ju Lin

Our four winners were discovered by our all-star judging panel at New Designers, the UK’s largest graduate design exhibition. Over the past 12 months they have received support and promotion from Design Council to help them kick-start their careers.