Festool design challenge

Kari de Villiers, a 4th year BA Honours student, was announced the overall winner of the 2016 Festool sponsored University of Johannesburg faculty of Art Design, Architecture, and Industrial Design challenge.

 

23-year-old Kari de Villiers from George, is a 4th year BA Honours student in Industrial Design at the University of Johannesburg. How did this talented young lady whose hobbies are gardening, needlework and ballet take the overall honours in this tough Festool competitive technical project? According to the Head of 3rd Year Department of Industrial Design School at UJ, Martin Bolton, it is all down to hard work, total commitment, and dedication from all the students. "I really did not expect to win as the final entries were all outstanding," said Kari. "Moving forward this gives me great motivation for the future and makes me happy to know I finished my degree with an award-winning design."

credit Elza Cooper

"Yet another overall Festool award goes to the women.  They must be the better designers than the men!" said Greg De Villiers, Sales manager Vermont Sales. "This is the second year that the ladies have taken the overall title, which certainly makes a statement in the design industry. To top it all, this was to design a rechargeable drill - hats off to the girls for having the largest number of entries for this prestigious Festool award," said De Villiers.

credit Elza Cooper

This year’s winner goes home with the prestigious award plus a Festool power tool kit of three of their latest drill combo sets valued at R30 000. Second place went to Edmar Maree and third to Marcha Naude. "The Festool award has become very popular with the students and was undertaken as their exam project for the BA Industrial Design course in 2016. The HOMEMAKERS Expo display included the majority of the classes work, and has effectively illustrated the student’s innovation, skill and abilities," said Martin Bolton – Head of 3rd Year Department of Industrial Design School at UJ.

The challenge was to design a product to suit the Festool brand, incorporating innovative technologies which are currently only available in the high-end Festool products. The design approach needed to carefully consider how people use the product for drilling, screwing, piloting, assembling, DIY’ing, etc.

As the task was a rechargeable product, they were required to push the boundaries of innovative batteries, with an appropriate recharging station. The design outcome had to reflect empathy with the human interface of the product and highlight the student’s ability to design complex forms that reflect both the brand and the correct level of visual appeal to entice customers to purchase the product. "This project was quite a major task for the students as it involved, research, cad drawings, engineering drawings, final specs of all parts, measurements, all components, sketches, and the final life sized workable model," said de Villiers.

For more information contact Vermont Sales www.vermontsales.co.za

All images: credit Elza Cooper

 

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