16 graduates honoured

- Jenny Hirvonen is a complete designer. She moves effortlessly, and yet with authority, through all disciplines and skills and beyond.

This was the motivation for this year’s largest scholarship, Nationalbankens Jubilæumsfond scholarship of DKK 25,000. The scholarship was awarded at the opening of the graduation exhibition at Koldinghus to Fashion Designer Jenny Hanna Hirvonen. She has created a collection for the modern woman that evades female stereotypes and cliches. Instead it offers a new take on female sensuality, through an exquisite use of color and by combining poetry and functionality.

Sydbank’s travel scholarship of DKK 10,000 was awarded to Industrial Designer Kasper Rene Hansen for his tireless work with local blind persons centres and the Robotics Centre in Odense to produce a self-propelled scooter for the blind.

HK Privats Ophavsretsfond travel scholarship of DKK 10,000 was awarded to Communication Designer Georgina Terragni who has developed a way for the Chinese to speak about polution.

Teknisk Landsforbund awarded DKK 2,500 to:
Fashion Designer Ane Katrine Elander
Textile Designer Sooji Kim

Gudrun og Erik Kauffeldts Fond awarded 11 scholarships of DKK 10.000 to:
Fashion Designer Cæcilie Dyrup
Fashion Designer Pernille Kaab
Industrial Designer Omayra Maymó
Industrial Designer Alberto Bellamoli
Textile Designer Amanda Karoline Jexen Larsen
Textile Designer Susanne Nors
Communication Designer Stine Gertsen
Communication Designer Julian Ramierez Bierring
Communication Designer Natasja Jensen
Communication Designers Lilas Ozanne and Katarzyna Piorska

10 special talents
Before the award ceremony all graduates received a diploma from the hand of Rector Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen. She focused on 10 special talents of the new designers.

- You are really talented and you are excellent communicators – and you are so much more. Let me point out 10 special talents that you take with you:

You can:
1.Use aesthetics as a source of meaning and delight. Just think of the images from the fashion show on Monday.

2.Develop or identify ways of applying new materials. Materials can be stories as well and therefore digital.

3.Design and facilitate processes. Here at the school, the project Design to innovate teaches small and medium-sized companies how to apply design methods to support innovation.

4.Represent human needs in the design of technology

5.Be a fly on the wall in terms of making observations that are transformed into concepts

6.Be a fly in the soup in terms of involvement and insights into work processes that differ from your own

7.Sustain the ability to wonder and ask questions that lead to new insights. Like: What makes you happy? 

8.Create sensory experiences which speak to much more than the rational mind

9.Create products and services that are socially inclusive

10.Create processes that generate involvement and engagement across professional disciplines

- This is a lot. And we expect a lot of you. You are the hope of the future. You can offer resistance to the increasing collective dementia. A dementia that is not caused by demographics alone but a mindset that builds on fear and despondency. Dear designers. Congratulations on your degree and all the best, Rector ended.