Product Design Student wins Silver

Otago Polytechnic Product Design student Juliet Symes has been awarded silver in the Designers Institute of New Zealand (DINZ) Best Design Awards (Student Category) for her ‘Dusi’ Tea Kettle.

“The brief I set was to enter an international design competition called 'Tea-Off' to design a teakettle,” Juliet explains. “I followed those guidelines but narrowed it down to designing an appliance that functioned as both a teapot and kettle in one.

“I started by researching past and current models and tea rituals. My main inspiration for the form was a Bauhaus teapot I came across in that research. I figure though, a kettle is a kettle so I really wanted to just focus on getting an emotive, beautiful form.”

The kettle is designed to boil on the stove. Tea leaves go in the spout, which also functions as a scoop.

Juliet’s design attracted significant interest internationally after she was a finalist in the NZ Dyson Awards for the same product, however agreements for the manufacture of the kettle fell through.

Juliet studied a Certificate in Interior Design in Auckland before moving to Dunedin three years ago and originally began to study the Bachelor of Design in Interiors before her love of furniture design drew her to study Product Design.

Already one of her designs – a flat-sheet poly-propolene lamp – is being stocked and distributed nationwide by the Port Chalmers Design Store.

Juliet attended the Awards Night at the Auckland Museum on October 16.