Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

UI students stick it to the competition with their award-winning thumbtack

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Stick this somewhere prominent on your bulletin board: Five University of Illinois industrial design students won a first-place award in a competition co-sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America and BusinessWeek magazine for their redesign of the thumbtack.

Gold Award winners in the student category of the Industrial Design Excellence Award competition are:

(EDITORS: See List.):

The UI students design, titled “Re-Thinking the Thumbtack,” was one of only three to receive Gold recognition this year in the international competition. According to their instructor, UI industrial design professor William Bullock, the Gold Award is the top honor given by an industrial design organization.

“This is a feather in their hats these things are very prestigious,” said Bullock, who noted that the competition is open to anyone enrolled in an accredited industrial design school. The students created their design for Bullocks professional-practice class.

The students thumbtack design was updated to more efficiently handle the many tasks tacks are typically used for: hanging wires and pictures, and serving as hooks.

The design also received a Design Distinction Award in the Student Work category in I.D. magazines annual design review. It will be showcased in the magazines August issue.

Two other UI students, enrolled in a class taught by Len Singer, received a second-place Silver Award in the IDEA competition. They are: (EDITORS: See List).

The winning student designs may be viewed on the Web at http://www.idsa.org.

IDEA GOLD AWARD WINNERS

CHICAGO (18) Teresa Barin

OAK PARK Michael Vostal

ROSELLE Laura Naughton

ST. CHARLES Scott Kochlefl

OUT-OF-STATE

MISSOURI, Liberty Matt Wertz

IDEA SILVER AWARD WINNERS

OUT-OF-STATE

NEW JERSEY, Fairfield Mark Baskinger, for the design of a prescription medicine bottle and a U.S. Postal Service delivery vehicle

OUT-OF-COUNTRY

KOREA, Seoul Ki-Chol Nam, Myungil-Dong,

Kangdong-Ku, for the design of a U.S. Postal Service delivery vehicle

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