Therapy table wins design

Industrial design graduate Alexander Wastney has won the eighth annual Dyson Product Design Award, edging out three of his Massey University peers.

Mr Wastney – who was both outright winner and scooped the People’s Choice award – designed a sports therapy table able to be packed down into a durable suitcase on wheels.

While studying at the University’s Wellington campus over three years, Mr Wastney played for the Wellington Saints basketball team. His inspiration came from feedback from the team’s physiotherapist who complained about existing table designs being heavy, cumbersome, and uncomfortable to sit and lie on.

Mr Wastney, 22, describes being named the winner as “very significant”.

“It’s recognition of the hard work I’ve done on this major project during a pretty stressful year. That final year project was our dream project. To have it pay off and be acknowledged is brilliant,” he says.

Mr Wastney is working as an industrial designer at New Plymouth company Howard Wright Limited, and now plays for the Taranaki Dynamos.

The other finalists are also Massey students or former students: Auckland-based Kent Hodgson, who invented a drink cooling system; Wellington’s Matt McKinley, who designed a mobile sheep testing station for farmers to test pregnant ewes; and Kaitaia builder Iain Tolladay, who invented a backpack-style harness capable of carrying wild game weighing up to 100kg.

Mr Tolladay was named runner-up in the award, and will be sponsored by the British Council New Zealand and travel to Hong Kong in August to compete in the global 48-hour design challenge.

Lyn Garrett, undergraduate programme leader in industrial design at the Institute of Design for Industry and the Environment, says Mr Wastney’s design explores unknown territory.

“Industrial design hasn’t been there before and there’s a very real need,” Mr Garrett says. “All the finalists were hard workers, and all are achievers.” He regards the Dyson Product Design Award highly due to the very thorough judging process.

The industrial design course is offered at Massey’s Wellington and Auckland Schools of Design, and is part of a suite of specialist qualifications provided by the College of Creative Arts.

The Dyson Product Design Award is open to final-year students studying in the areas of design, technology or engineering and to graduates in their first five years in the workforce. The aim of the Dyson Product Design Award is to reward a new generation of emerging designers with ideas that best demonstrate innovative and inspiring solutions to everyday problems.

Mr Wastney is now the 2008 British Council New Zealand Design Ambassador and will travel to the United Kingdom to tour Dyson’s Research, Design, and Development Centre. He will also receive a package of prizes including legal and intellectual property advice, and membership to the Designers Institute of New Zealand.