The i-dott charity was set up in 2013 to support, nurture and inspire surface pattern design students internationally (inspiring the designers of tomorrow, today). Ten years on it has grown from strength to strength. 2021 saw a record 522 entries from over 20 universities. 2022 however, suffered from the Covid Effect, and the competition saw a drop in entries to 175- but it’s quality, not quantity that counts and 2023 is sure to see an increase as students start to find their feet again in the wake of the pandemic.
The competition is a great way for students to design to an industry-standard brief and to network with experts from the wall coverings industry. It’s FREE to enter with prizes ranging from cash sums to placements and as proud supporters of i-dott, AVA CAD CAM are invited to choose a winner from each category and welcome each lucky designer onto our online CAD Specialist Training course. We are pleased to introduce our 2022 winners!
Solene Parker University of Wales Trinity St. David’s, Swansea College of Art
Timeless and Current set by the Surface Print Company
Solene is currently in her second year at university and is inspired by different artistic styles from around the world, having travelled widely. She is currently working on a live brief and enjoying processes such as Riso printing. She heard about i-dott through her university and it was discussed as a very interesting competition that could be really worthwhile entering and one that offers really good support for design and students.
Solene joined our CST course in October and said “It was nice to learn how to use a different type of software for making patterns. I really enjoyed the process of quick separations. It was fun to experiment and see how the design would look in different colourways as well as learning how to separate the colours in a design.”
Instagram @soleneparker.art
Isla Reid Heriot Watt University
Heritage with a Twist set by Newmor
Isla is currently in her final year at Heriot Watt and as well as winning the AVA CST prize for this category, she also achieved third place in the final round by the i-dott board of judges! She is currently creating a collection for her Honours project, focusing on African safari. Isla starts all of her work by hand painting and then scanning into the computer. Isla takes inspiration from nature and during lockdown started her one small greetings cards business.
Isla says “I would love to be able to branch out to textiles once I have graduated from university. However, I would like to gain some industry experience first working as a designer in both wallpaper and soft furnishing design, to allow me to gain experience from other successful designers.”
Instagram @islatextiles
Hwawon Cho, Nottingham Trent University
More than Wallpaper set by Anstey
Hwawon is currently in her third year at Nottingham Trent University and plans to attend the AVA CST course this December. She says that designing to an industry brief allowed her to be creative in a different way. About Hwawon’s style she comments that “regardless of the platform, I believe in the power of storytelling and I’m interested in environmental issues and how these can affect our futures.”
Our winner for the category Inline set by Darsi was Kaisa Kervinen of Metropolia University of Applied Science in Finland.
The 2023 briefs are now live and the closing date for entries is 31st March.
Category One Anstey ‘Out of the Shadows’
Category Two Warner House ‘Exotic Travels’
Category Three Surface Print ‘Flock it’
Good luck to all and happy designing!!