News Design Competition - Why Making Galway Plastic Free Matters to You

The School of Education, NUI Galway Design Competition was open to post-primary school students in Galway city and county.

The theme of the competition was ‘Plastic Free’ and we invited students to design an art-piece that captures “Why making Galway plastic free matters to you”.  The work also highlighted relevant statistics about plastic usage.

Winning submissions to the School of Education Design Competition, organised by Dr Eílis Flanagan, were announced on 28^th May, at the reception of the International Society for Design and Development in Education conference hosted by NUI Galway.

Inspiring creativity, design thinking and environmental awareness the competition invited second-level students across Galway city and county to design an art piece capturing the theme ‘Why making Galway plastic free matters to you’.  The Mayor of the City of Galway, Cllr. Pearce Flannery presented winners with their prizes, which were kindly sponsored by Iceland Ireland Ltd, Galway County Council, Galway City Council and SEAI.

Selected prize winners attended the MakerSapce in NUI Galway to learn about the principles of design, facilitated by Paula Walsh.  Bláithín Breathnach from Seamount College, Kinvara claimed the first runner up prize for her 3D artistic representation of sea life and plastic pollution while Sarah McGown from Coláiste Bhaile Chláir was awarded secondrunner up for a creative poster design.  Three design idea prizes were awarded to students form St. Jarlath’s College, Tuam: Tiernan Godwin, Bartosz Sulkowski and Ivan Maslennikova Plaza for ideas including repurposing plastic to create bird houses.  The overall competition first prize was awarded to students from Presentation College, Tuam: Sasha Hogan, Kate Smith and Agata Szajda for their artistic fashioning of waste plastic.

The School of Education would like to congratulate all students on their entries and especially to the competition winners for their interesting, engaging and thought-provoking submissions.  Thank you to School of Education students Nuala Egan, Sara McHugh and Nicole Loughlin for competition poster design and dissemination.

Link to photos of competition winners

For more information contact Dr Eílis Flanagan, eilis.flanagan@nuigalway.ie