Award win for furniture designer at New Designers

Each year, design students from around the UK exhibit at New Designers, in the hope of attracting the attention of top design companies.

The ‘Tom Faulkner Award for Distinctive Furniture Design’ awarded the top prize of £1,000 to Millie, with the judges praising a "great story, thoughtful design and beautiful idea".

Millie said: "When I found out I had won the Tom Faulkner award, I was just very shocked really. It definitely took a while to sink in. New Designers is an overwhelming experience. Great for meeting people in the industry like Tom Faulkner, Seymour Powell and their teams and for students forming connections for future jobs."

Millie’s chair design, which "embodies the nostalgia of mismatched furniture at family gatherings", also received a ‘Seymour Powell Loves’ award for furniture innovation and craftsmanship.

Course Leader Tim Forrester said: “We are delighted with Millie’s successes which demonstrate her creative talent and immense ability as a young designer-maker with exceptional attention to detail and craftsmanship. It was fabulous to see so many industry experts recognised her talent with their acknowledgement through her multiple awards in distinct furniture design and craftsmanship”.

It has been a busy year for Millie who has also featured in the ‘Green Grads’ exhibition as part of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair,  which aims "to platform UK graduates engaging with eco-issues, such as sustainability, climate change, circular production, waste and pollution, diminishing resources, biophilia, bio-diversity". Millie was also recognised by The Great Pottery Throw Down presenter Keith Brymer Jones, who awarded her his ‘Promising Young Maker’ award at Degree Show 2024.

Speaking about her time on her degree, Millie said: "During the course, we had plenty of 'Live Briefs' with companies such as Habitat, Wedgwood, and KMF, when we would pitch our ideas based on a set brief given by them. This helped me gain confidence in presenting my ideas as happens in industry and was a good opening to thinking about how products would be made in large-scale manufacturing. These live briefs also open up opportunities for placements with some of the companies. The course has also taught me how to structure my projects, which has been helpful since starting at deVOL."

It was through New Designers that Millie connected with kitchen design company, deVOL, where she currently works as a product designer. She says: "It is still early days, but it is going well and everyone is lovely in the workplace."