WWU Students Win Scholarships in Local Furniture-Design Competition

July 10, 2017

by Lucia Gruber, Office of Communications and Marketing intern

Five students from Western Washington University’s Industrial Design program received recognition and $6,000 in scholarships for their furniture designs for small spaces as part of the annual Mount Baker Plywood Furniture Design Competition.

Western students, children, parents and a panel of four judges have reviewed and selected the winning designs among 13 different student projects. Entries were judged on concept, creativity, functionality, structure, craftsmanship and form. They were judged by Lisa Van Doren, Kyle Thomas, Jon Falcon and Arunas Oslapas. Van Doren is an owner of Ideal, a design shop on 1227 Cornwall Ave. in Bellingham; Thomas is the owner of Thomas, a design firm in Bellingham; Falcon is the principle designer of Falcon Works design agency in Bellingham, and Oslapas is a professor of Industrial Design at Western.

  • First prize and a $2,000 scholarship was awarded to Annelise Payne for her side table design.
  • Second prize and a $1,500 scholarship was awarded to Shane Bedard for his chaise design, made out of maple plywood and steel.
  • Third prize and a $1,000 scholarship was awarded to Alyona Gudima for her planter shelf design.   
  • Fourth prize and an $800 scholarship was awarded to Scott McGee for his combination bike stand, shelf and bench design.
  •  Fifth place and a $500 scholarship was awarded to Kyle Hamm for his design of modular tables created out of white oak plywood and steel.

Scholarship money and wood for the projects were provided by Mount Baker Products, Inc. of Bellingham.

Photographs from the competition can be found online at https://www.flickr.com/photos/126998610@N06/sets/72157682071033423.

For more information, contact Jason Morris, Western Washington University Department of Engineering and Design, at (360) 650-2514 or Jason.Morris@wwu.edu.