Design Transforms Borders

Competition Winner

The Design Brief
Physical and perceptual borders define location, society, gender, race, nations and cultures. As such, they inform identities, communities and relationships. This challenge asks you what constitutes the meaning of “border” and how might this idea be expressed on a china plate?
If chosen, your design will form a centrepiece and vehicle for fundraising dinners, a backdrop to both the talks programme and the participatory clay workshops in Industry City Brooklyn this May.

Background
Design Transforms Borders is part of an event co-produced by Central Saint Martins UAL, with human rights activist organisations Touching Land and Territorial Empathy. The project works across boundaries, calling on local community groups, schools, enterprises and individuals to join in. It invites participants to join live studios of ceramic making, dinners and debates, promoting access, learning and social justice with the communities of Sunset Park Brooklyn.

Winning Design:

Explanation:

This design represents the negative impact of borders on groups and communities. While the white bars can be interpreted as a border, they can also be interpreted as jail cell bars, which highlights the similarity between the two at times. It also brings attention to the way in which people are unjustly portrayed as criminals whilst attempting to cross borders.

To take advantage of the existing colour and material of the plate, I used negative space to create the “border/jail cell” bars.

My other entries:

Design 2 Explanation:

This design represent the ways in which borders affect and define people of all ages. The baby crawling through the barbed wire – present on many borders across the globe –  symbolizes the ways in which barriers can have a strong impact not only on adults, but on the daily lives of children and kids. Additionally, the merging of barbed wire and play tunnel symbolize the strength of the human spirit in overcoming these barriers.

Design 3 Explanation:

This design represents the idea of living in a world “beyond borders”, where people from different communities and upbringings can share experiences and learn from each other, without being held back by physical or perceptual borders. In this idealistic world without borders, our imagination knows no limit, which is depicted by the people freely roaming the earth.