Renata Hidajat of the University of Technology, Sydney – winner of the 2009 Cormack Innovation Awards – shares her insights and experiences of the Cormack Innovation Award process and provides some helpful tips for this years students.

View of the Competition

Compared to other 3rd year competitions, the Cormack Innovation Awards are seen as a prestigious award among students. It’s an opportunity for recognition and exposure to industry.

The competition itself was well organised and offered a good balance between design and a more technical focus. The designs needed to be more functional rather than just something pretty.

The students were given a clear brief and good direction with briefing sessions and support. These sessions gave a clearer indication of expectations and exposed students to real manufacturing, sales and marketing.

Thoughts on Internship

The internship has given me much greater exposure to the process and resources behind designing. I have gained experience of the factory, sales and marketing and the Design Team. The experience is very hands on including work in the factory and with customers in the industry.

It’s an eye opening experience to behind the scenes of product design and how challenging it can be to introduce and develop an innovative product. A design needs to be efficient. You don’t realise the intricacies relating to a simple closure.

Future Plans

In the next 5 years I will definitely design my token chair….or maybe a stool!

I plan to enter many competitions and exhibitions to build a portfolio and for further exposure.

I do have an interest in packaging and I have learnt a lot from closure manufacture. I would like to further develop my knowledge of injection molding as it is a process which is a foundation for the manufacture of many products.

Also I would like to continue to travel overseas as my last trip to Thailand inspired my designs.

Tips for students:

Preparation and Research:

Once you get the brief get out into the supermarkets and look at the current products displayed on the shelf. This is an easy and quick way of discovering what products/designs are available on shelf and what can be successfully manufactured. From here you can compare and analyse which products have consumer issues regarding use, child resistance, tamper evidence etc. This will help you find areas and markets for you to potentially design for. If you don't understand the mechanics of a product/closure buy it and take it apart. Understanding how the products have been made and how the materials have been utilised as a feature/function is an advantage.

Also, do a bit of background research on the company. Understand what type of products they import and manufacture so it can give you an idea on the limits of manufacturing. Definately attend the factory tour because you will experience all of the limitations of the injection molding process.

Presentation and Communication is the key:

Remember you are presenting your concepts through boards so keep it clean, simple and easy to understand. Take note on who is judging the awards and remember they come from different backgrounds like marketing, sales, product engineer. etc

The boards need to be self explanatory and focus on renders and graphics to communicate your design and how it works etc.

Answer the brief: