Young Designer Awards

WHAT WE DO

We run a major national annual design awards competition for secondary and intermediate school students (aged 11-18).
This Awards competition provides far more than just the opportunity to celebrate the success of our young designers at a national level.
Every year we bring hundreds of students, teachers and schools an awareness of good design practise and the opportunity to access advice and inspiration from practising members of New Zealand’s creative design industries.
We are also involving an increasing number of students in the Young Designer Awards programme through providing student ‘apprenticeships’ where young people are placed alongside industry professionals working on the Awards programme.
This interface between students and the ‘real world’ brings credibility to their efforts, celebrates their successes, gives them peer group ‘heroes’ as role models and in many cases establishes ongoing relationships with industry mentors.
The Young Designer Awards also provides a platform for cooperation and collegiality between teachers and schools - We encourage information sharing and cooperative professional development through our organisations’ communication channels.
The articles, lectures, workshops and individual contacts and networking that we provide for those involved with us underpin a support system which reaches nationwide to foster continual improvement in the outcomes for young people interested in design.

WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES?

The Young Designer Awards fosters social and creative experiences for young people – allowing them to expand their creative horizons in a supported and celebrated environment through our national Awards programme
We build confidence and self esteem in the young people we work with by providing a variety of opportunities for them to succeed in our programme of awards and our annual event
Our team of trustees, management and our stakeholders are all passionate about building a positive foundation for New Zealand’s youth by providing celebration of excellence, positive role models, access to professional expertise and multiple opportunities to excel across a wide range of design and event management disciplines
Our philosophy is clearly aligned with our social values of:
Honesty – our programme is conducted with high integrity
Responsibility – we foster reliability and responsibility
Confidence – we give young people confidence in their value
Respect – is extended to all of our participants and stakeholders
Inclusiveness – we are proud to include all students and stakeholders including disabled youngsters and multiple cultural/ethnic groups
We can demonstrate that the Young Designer Awards have significant benefits to the community through our work with young people and their teachers. We bring these benefits to the youth of New Zealand by:

- Encouraging young people’s creativity, confidence and pursuit of excellence
- Expanding their skills and knowledge in design
- Fostering teamwork and contact with academia and industry
- Bringing ‘real-life’ opportunities to young people aged 11-18
- Providing ‘hands-on’ experience alongside industry professionals
- Giving a vehicle to celebrate the success of young designers at a national level
- Encouraging networking and professional development for teachers
- Improving outcomes for young people interested in design


The Young Designer Awards Trust’s has a wide reach into secondary and intermediate schools across New Zealand.

• We are in regular email contact with 600 schools and also with approximately 600 teachers and a huge number of students.

• Our website receives between approximately 500 and 1500 visits per month and we include sponsors’ logos and website links.

• We will acknowledge our sponsors in press releases that we make in support of the Awards ceremony.

We estimate that we directly benefit approximately 1,000 young people who are involved as entrants, models, dancers, classmates and enrolled in our ‘student apprentice’ programme. In addition to this we provide a design resource to approximately 600 design and technology teachers throughout New Zealand.

If the indirect benefits are examined, and we look at the wider context of improving the capability of schools and students to deliver quality outcomes in design education over and above the existing standards, it becomes clear that there are further benefits to a much wider group.

Raising the capability of young people to perform in their chosen careers, and to extend themselves or provide role models for their peers will have an ongoing effect in improving the expectations and achievements of this generation as they move into tertiary education and the workforce. It is difficult to put a per capita cost on these indirect benefits, and the positive affects they would have on society as a whole, but we feel certain that it would be in the order of a just few cents for every person affected.

The Young Designer Awards Trust is a reputable organisation and has been promoting the interests of New Zealand’s young designers since 1992. We are proud of our good standing among the design community in New Zealand and the passionate response we have from the schools and young people that we serve.