Today, the Design Museum and architect Selasi Setufe revealed the brief for this year’s Design Ventura competition, inviting teams of students from UK state secondary schools to design a new product for the Design Museum Shop.

The Programme

Design Ventura brings the business of design to life for UK state secondary schools. It aims to support Design & Technology and Art & Design programmes across the country by providing free online learning resources, workshops, webinars and live events, supported by industry professionals to offer a real-world design and enterprise learning opportunity.

Now in its 13th year, the annual competition is run by the Design Museum in partnership with Deutsche Bank’s global youth engagement programme Born to Be.

Since its inception in 2010, the programme has seen over 110,000 students participate and grow their creative and entrepreneurial skills by designing and developing a product for a real target audience.

Brief Setter

Selasi Setufe is an architect with an interest in exploring socially responsive approaches to design, architecture and placemaking. She is Co-Founder of Black Females in Architecture, an organisation which advocates for diversity, race and gender equity in Architecture, Design & Construction industries. Setufe was awarded an MBE for her services to diversity in architecture in the Queen’s 2022 New Year’s Honours.

Setufe will be supported by the Design Museum’s newly appointed Head of Learning, Stella Fong, formerly of M+ in Hong Kong, who starts at the museum today.

The 2022-23 Brief – Place

Revealed today, the video brief for Design Ventura 2022-23 invites teams of students to be inspired by ‘Place’ – how your environment impacts you and you impact your environment – and design a new product for the Design Museum Shop. This theme encourages an understanding of design beyond product and object, prompting students to consider designed spaces and the built environment. The brief looks for products that improve everyday life by addressing a social, educational or environmental issue and retails for around £15.

Ten shortlisted state school teams will be invited to Deutsche Bank’s London head office to pitch their ideas to a panel of expert judges including Setufe, senior Deutsche Bank employees and the Design Museum’s Head of Commercial, Kirsty West.

One winning team will be selected to develop their designs with a professional agency before their product is manufactured and sold in the Design Museum Shop. The money raised from the sales of the winning product will go to a charity of the students’ choosing.

The deadline for entries is 23 February 2023. The 10 shortlisted schools will be announced in March 2023, and winners will be revealed at a celebration event in April 2023. A two-month display of shortlisted and winning entries at the Design Museum will follow.

Mini Challenge

Alongside this year’s competition, the Design Museum has launched an online mini challenge around the theme of ‘Wellbeing’ inspired by their ASMR exhibition running until 16 October 2022 at the Design Museum.

Open to students in years 7 and 8, the mini challenge offers a taster of the Design Ventura programme for younger students. Supported by a series of online resources, videos, and workshops, students are invited to upload a design for a product focussed on user Wellbeing. Winners will be selected by industry expert volunteers and announced fortnightly on social media from September 2022 to February 2023.

Selasi Setufe MBE, Innovative sites manager and senior architect at Be First. Co-director of Black Females in Architecture

“I have a particular interest in the impact that the places around us have on influencing our societies and environments. As an Architect, I have the pleasure of positively contributing to shaping spaces we live, work and play in. I am really excited to see how thoughts about ‘Place’ in all its different meanings are explored by the students taking part in this years Design Ventura programme, I can’t wait to see the products they come up with.”

Lareena Hilton, Global Head of Brand & Corporate Social Responsibility at Deutsche Bank
“Deutsche Bank is proud to continue our partnership with the Design Museum and help bring to life Design Ventura for another year. The programme helps meet a growing need in vital 21st century skills for young students, from project management and problem solving, to critical thinking and creativity. As the next generation of designers and entrepreneurs start to consider their future careers, it is essential young people have the opportunity to discover their full potential.”

Josephine Chanter, Director of Audience, the Design Museum
‘This programme enables students to experience what it is to be a designer, to solve problems, make commercial decisions and persuade potential investors. These are key skills for anyone entering the workforce but crucially, they also provide the building blocks for empowering young people to make the world a better place.’

History of Design Ventura

From the 11 student products that have been made and sold in the Design Museum Shop, more than £15,000 has been raised for charity over 13 years.

The 2021 winning team from Cambourne Village College Cambridge designed ‘Eco Seed,’ a doughnut shaped grid which floats on water keeping seeds moist and provoking them to germinate. It will be available in the Design Museum Shop from this Autumn.