Society News

DHS Network Co-ordinator

1 May

DHS Network Co-ordinator

The Design History Society is looking to enhance the activities of the Executive Committee with the appointment of Network Co-ordinator, to plan and develop new networks germane to the Design History Society and related subjects....More

Media Matters: Friedrich Kittler and Technoculture

1 May

Media Matters: Friedrich Kittler and Technoculture

Media Matters: Friedrich Kittler and Technoculture is a two day series of events bringing one of today's foremost philosophers of media to Tate Modern for an opportunity to examine the relationship between culture and technology with a range of leading thinkers and practitioners, on 27-28 June 2008....More

Commonplace Yet Extraordinary

1 May

Commonplace Yet Extraordinary

The symposium “Commonplace Yet Extraordinary: Design Histories of Everyday Objects” will take place at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware on Friday 16 May, 2008....More

Society news archives here...

Essay Prize

Two prizes of £300, one undergraduate and one postgraduate, are awarded annually to maintain high standards in Design History in Higher Education.

Criteria

The competition is open to any student on an accredited BA or MA equivalent course in which Design History is a component (within the UK and Ireland only). The following criteria apply:

  • The essay should be written English.
  • The essay should be of dissertation length - at least 6,000 words, up to approximately 12,000 words. However, different word counts will be considered.
  • Two hard copies of the essay (with any illustrations) to be submitted.
  • The entrant must have been a full- or part-time student within the academic year 2007/2008.
  • The entrant should not have been previously published.
  • All essays must be accompanied by an academic nomination. Guidelines for selection are available to tutors on request.

Prizes

  • A bursary of �300.
  • One year's membership of the Design History Society, including subscription to The Journal of Design History.
  • Free place at the 2008 DHS Conference, Networks of Design, at University College Falmouth in Cornwall, 3-6 September.
  • �100 worth of Oxford University Press publications.
  • Five Paperbacks in the Oxford History of Art series.
  • publication of 500 word article about the Essay in the DHS Newsletter

Application forms and guidelines outlining selection and nomination criteria are available from Linda Sandino, DHS Essay Prize Officer, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, Wilson Road, London SE15 8EU, T: +44 (0)20 7514 6414, F: +44 (0)20 7515 6405.

The next deadline for submission is 3 July 2008.

Previous Winners

2007

Undergraduate Prize Winner

Marcus Swan, BA (Hons) Design in Visual Communications, The Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, Eire.

The Medium is the Text Message:The Social and Aesthetic Effect of Text Messages.

Postgraduate Prize Winner

Lauren Porter, History of Design MA, V&A/Royal College of Art, London.

The Cardinal's Hammer.

2006

Undergraduate Prize Winner

John Patrick Hartnett, BA (Hons) Design for Interactive Media, the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, Eire.

Derrida by Default: Wolfgang Weingart and the (Accidental) Deconstruction of Swiss Typography

Postgraduate Prize Winner

Chris Campbell, MA Communication Design, Central St Martins, University of the Arts London.

Authority, Obedience and the Naked Street: The British Road Signage System After World War II

2005

Undergraduate Prize Winner

Sian Ball, BA (Hons) Textile Design, Loughborough University.

Children's Clothing in the 1960s: A Period of Transition

Postgraduate Prize Winner

Katherine Feo, MA History of Design, V&A/RCA.

(In)visibility: Memory, Masks and Masculinities in the Great War

2004

Undergraduate Prize Winner

Eleanor Marsden, BA English and the History of Art and Design, Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton).

Where Art and Fashion Meet: Unravelling the Significance of an Edwardian Dress

Postgraduate Prize Winner

Di Taylor, MA History of Design RCA/V&A Joint Course

Powder to Go: The Supremacy of the Powder Comapct in the Interwar Years.

2003

Undergraduate Prize Winner

Martin Cahill, BA (Hons) Visual Communications, Dublin Institute of Technology

Universalism vs. National Identity: The Evolution of the Olympic Pictogram.

Undergraduate Prize Winner

Hannah Smith, BA (Hons) History of Design, Culture & Society/University of Brighton

Mirrors of Society? Bankside Power Station & Baltic Flour Mill.

2002

Undergraduate Prize Winner

Jennifer Lock, Fashion and Textile Design, John Moores

A Discussion of the Role of the Photograph, the Viewer and the Viewed in Faashion Photography of the 1990s.

Postgraduate Prize Winner

Alice McEwen, MA History of Design RCA/V&A Joint Course

Wanted Dead or Alive! The Role of the British Bathroom Tap in Constructing (and Reflecting) Idealized Visions and Lived Realities.

2001

Undergraduate Winner

Lizzie Engelen

Pugin's Albury Chimneys - Pots of cash or stacks of style?

Postgraduate Prize Winner

Kate Forde, MA History of Design RCA/V&A Joint Course

Celluloid Dreams: The marketing of Cutex in America 1916-1935.

2000

Undergraduate Winner

Laura Molson, Design Studies A at the Nottingham Trent University.

The Make Do and Mend Campaign, a Successful Strategy?

1998

Undergraduate Winner

Mole Leigh, 3D Craft graduate of the University of Brighton

The Chronomanual Concept: human labour and relative time-consumption in the production of craft.

1997

Postgraduate Winner

Guy Turner, MA History of Design Joint, V&A/RCA.

"Allume Catina" and the Aesthetics of Venetian "Cristallo".