And the winner is...

Congratulations to Oscar from Oxford whose pair of beautifully made bedside tables have been selected as the winning entry in the competition we have been running with Marc Fish. Typically you would expect a designer to make discrete use of colour or figure , surface texture, and shape, usually choosing one or two and downplaying the others to create visual appeal. Oscar has muted all of them and created his visual impact by using the vacant space between strips on the drawer front to create a sense of movement.

Here's what Oscar had to say about it:

"The tables were inspired by the optical art of Bridget Reilly and Victor Vasarely. I found the visual awareness of how lines can be used to make us aware of our eyes stimulating and a visual challenge to transfer in to 3D without making the pieces overall feature a surface pattern.

   

I wanted to make the connection between the appearance of movement used in optical art and my tables, so using the main feature of my piece to suggest a handle made sense. The lower part of the laminate is set forward to create a drawer pull.

Underneath the curved laminate is a domed piece of copper to highlight the shape." 

Winning this competition is a significant achievement for this talented young maker. Having been selected one of Britan's most highly decorated creative artists from a field that included some serious amatuer and professional competitors, Oscar will now go on to spend a week under Marc's tuition, honing and refining his skills.

The two runner up prizes of a £100 Workshop Heaven gift certificate go to:

 Jan, also from Oxford for his velo chair, inspired by modern bicycle design and designed to wrap around the user and make them feel part of the chair.

and Philipp from Austria for his octagon cabinet. Geometric elements of the octagon are cleverly used throughout the entire piece, including the internal layout and the joinery.
 

My sincere thanks to all of the people who entered the competition. Both Marc and I were stunned at the overall quality of entries, many of which exhibited exceptional craftsmanship.