Secondary school pupil Luisa Geddes won the competition to design a time capsule for V&A Dundee, which will be installed in 2018 and sealed for 50 years.
The competition was open to all Scottish secondary school pupils studying the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s Higher Design and Manufacture course.
Each pupil had to respond to a brief set by SQA, V&A Dundee and Jaguar, with the winner seeing their design developed and manufactured at Jaguar’s Coventry headquarters.
Her winning design – and an impressive pitch to judges, including Jaguar Director of Design Ian Callum – tackled multiple problems, including being weatherproof for 50 years, occupying a space of no more than 1.5 cubic metres, and being a creative design inspired by Jaguar and V&A Dundee’s building.
“For my design, I tried to interpret both old Dundee and new. I wanted it to represent the past and the future,” Luisa says. “One of the main things I wanted to do with my design was to make it a feature both in the day and during the night. And I think it will be hard to miss, especially at night when it is lit up,” with shadows being cast around its installation in the grounds of V&A Dundee.
Her interest in design was developed by the design department at the Community School of Auchterarder. “I had the chance to design things and make them and have been in love with design ever since,” Luisa says. “I loved the whole problem-solving aspect of being given a brief and trying to figure out how best to design a solution.”
After winning the competition Luisa had the “unbelievable” opportunity to spend a week at Jaguar, working “in different departments with different people on developing my design”. “I loved seeing how the different departments all work separately but still communicate to get these amazing designs,” she adds.
The experts at Jaguar took Luisa through “different material options, colour combinations and how it could be made,” ahead of the company manufacturing the final time capsule, which will be installed above ground, unlike many time capsules.
“I found it fascinating hearing everyone’s opinions and how they interpreted my design,” adapting Luisa’s original ideas “into a more practical design”. “Jaguar made sure that any changes made to the design were my ideas and that I was happy with all the changes. I really appreciated this and it gave me even more respect for the people I was working with,” she says.
Her final design will be revealed ahead of the time capsule being unveiled in 2018.
“I think design matters because without it the world wouldn’t work. Everything needs to be designed and the world needs innovative, creative people to shape it,” Luisa adds.
After finishing school Luisa is considering university studies, but hasn’t settled on one subject area yet. “Whatever I do in design I want to be successful and I want my designs, whatever they may be, to help people and impact their lives for the better,” she says.
We are delighted to add Luisa to V&A Dundee’s Design Champions, recognising an emerging young designer with creative talent and a focus on how design can improve the world.
(Image above shows Luisa with Ian Callum, Jaguar Director of Design, in front of V&A Dundee in March 2017.)
The V&A Dundee Design Champions are inspirational designers creating high-quality work and helping to enhance people’s lives, or champions of the power of design to improve the world.
We will announce 50 Design Champions in the run-up to the museum opening on Saturday 15 September 2018.
V&A Dundee’s Design Champions project is working with Dezeen as its media partner.
Dezeen is the world’s most popular and influential architecture and design magazine, with an audience of 2.5 million unique visitors each month.
