Kids car sunshade wins prestigious Design Innovation in Plastics Award

The Design Innovation in Plastics Awards were held on June 30 at the Painters Hall in the City of London, with six product design students in the final.

The judging panel, headed by Richard Brown of RJG Technologies, were looking for unique and sustainable products aimed at travellers.

From 160 submissions the judging panel selected six final entries: PEEK Interactive sunshade by Ellen Britton; an inflatable lap seat for babies in air travel, by Kayleigh Dobson; a neoprene camera body strap case by Russell Kilgour; a bike lock pedal by Aidan Smith; an jet-lag light therapy face mask, by Monique Spoerri, and a wristband to prevent sunburn by Dom Tindale.

First prize was won by Ellen Britton, of Glasgow School of Art, for her car sunshade with heat sensitive polymers, to let kids doodle on the shade surface, as they would a steamed up window.

She takes home £1000, a trip to awards sponsor Covestro, a training course at RJG Technologies and a place of honour at the Company of Horners banquet in October.

After collecting the award Britton said: “I’m really surprised and overwhelmed, I felt that my interview went well back in May, but it was yesterday when I was so impressed with all the other talent that my hopes felt dashed. But now I’m delighted to win.

“Its super surprising because I had a lot of trouble developing the project and there seemed to be a lot of doubt and moments if it would become anything, but now I see the sunshade really resonated with people.”

Richard Brown, Chair of the Judges, said: “This year the winner is very worthy – she has a product that has used old techniques to give something to kids in the iPad generation. Its great and we have six very strong finalists here.”

The Design Innovation Plastics Award aims to encourage students to think about use of plastics as a key design material. Held annually for over fifty years, it is the longest running award in plastics design.