Transform magazine: Yuri Suzuki announced as the brief setter for Design Ventura 2021 – 2021

Sound artist, designer and electronic musician Yuri Suzuki has been heralded as the brief initiator of Design Ventura, the Design Museum’s annual design and business competition for schools. The competition is organized in partnership with Deutsche Bank’s global youth engagement program, Born to Be.

Design Ventura aims to bring the design industry for UK public secondary schools to life. It seeks to support design and technology and art and design programs across the country by providing free online learning resources, workshops, webinars, and live events. The goal is to provide a real-world design and business learning opportunity.

Yuri Suzuki’s practice explores the realms of sound through designed pieces that examine the relationship between people and their environment – interrogating how music and sound evolve to create personal experiences. In 2018, Suzuki was appointed a partner at Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design studio, where he started working as an artist in the London studio.

“I chose to be the short setter of Design Ventura 2021-22 because I wanted to give a different perspective. I’m not your standard designer. I wanted to show that there isn’t one standard way to do it. “Being a designer, there isn’t just one way to be a creative entrepreneur. There are so many different ways to be a designer,” says Suzuki.

“We are delighted that Yuri Suzuki is this year’s short setter. As an artist and designer whose work spans applications to products to large-scale installations, we believe that the accessible, interactive and challenging work of Yuri will provide a great source of inspiration for this year’s students, ”adds Fiona MacDonald, Head of Learning at the Design Museum.

Suzuki unveiled its video kit for the 12th annual award, inviting teams of students from the UK and around the world to design a new product for the Design Museum Shop that improves everyday life by addressing a social, educational issue or environmental and sells for around £ 15. Ten shortlisted public school teams will be invited to Deutsche Bank’s London headquarters to present their ideas to a panel of expert judges including Suzuki, senior Deutsche Bank employees and the Design Museum’s retail manager.

A winning team will be selected to develop their designs with a professional agency before their product is manufactured and sold in the Design Museum store. The money raised from the sale of the winning product will go to a charity chosen by the students.

“Deutsche Bank is proud to continue to support Design Ventura. With the World Economic Forum listing problem solving, critical thinking and creativity among the top ten skills needed to work in 2025, it is clear that the program is helping students prepare for their professional future. We also know from the in-depth evaluation of the program that almost 100% of teachers see an improvement in their students’ confidence and ambition, ”says Lareena Hilton, Executive Director, Global Head of Brand Communications and of CSR at Deutsche Bank.

Now in its 12th year, the program has seen over 108,200 students participate to develop their creative and entrepreneurial skills by designing and developing a product for a true target audience. The 2020 winning team – Heckmondwike Grammar School – designed ‘Sow Beautiful’, a flower seed cannon used to grow flowers and create a source of pollen for bees and will be available in the Design Museum store from this fall.