The Future of Design: Winners of Formica Corporation's FORM Student Innovation Competition Announced

Winner's furniture design will be fabricated, showcased at Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati starting March 23

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Mar 12, 2018, 04:30 ET

CINCINNATI, March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Formica Corporation and a panel of esteemed design judges are excited to announce the top three winners of the FORM Student Innovation Competition. The competition provided students the opportunity to take on the original 2008 FORM challenge, where world-renowned designers and architects constructed works of art from Formica® Brand products, creating something to "sit upon, lay upon, lean upon or play upon."

“Deflextion," a design by Kean University student Rachel Marie Thompson, won the 2018 FORM Student Innovation Competition held by Formica Corporation and will be on display at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center beginning March 23. The competition provided students the opportunity to take on the original 2008 FORM challenge, where world-renowned designers and architects constructed works of art from Formica® Brand products, creating something to “sit upon, lay upon, lean upon or play upon.”

Rachel Marie Thompson is the grand-prize winner of the competition with her "Deflextion" design, which is a unique chair meant to give the illusion of movement as it is observed from every angle and uses three different Formica® Laminate designs: Bright White, Graphite Grafix and Black. Kimberly Wheeler's "Carrara Bellis" design took second place and Sara Camacho's "Cebra Chair" took third. The top three students all attend Michael Graves College at Kean University.

"When creating 'Deflextion,' I was determined to seek out a way to create a curvature form in a new and unique way," Thompson said. "This design was inspired by pieces that were created with laser-cutting techniques and origami forms."

Submissions from around the U.S. were judged by Melodie Leung from Zaha Hadid Architects, Rob Van Varick and Donald Strum from Michael Graves Architecture & Design, R. Roger Remington from the Vignelli Center for Design Studies and Rochester Institute of Technology, Raphaela Platow from the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and Renee Hytry Derrington, global design lead at Formica Group.

"Having been involved in the first competition in 2008, I very much enjoyed reviewing the range of student design proposals," Leung said. "These proposals reminded me of the versatility and creative potential of working with Formica Brand products."

The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, where Formica Corporation is headquartered, will run an exhibition from March 23 to April 8 featuring the winning student's fabricated design, renderings of other finalists' designs, and works by Massimo Vignelli, Michael Graves and other prominent architects from the original FORM competition.

"We are thrilled to give the next generation of great architects the opportunity to share their work," Hytry Derrington said. "The quality and thoughtfulness of the designs submitted to the competition was astounding, and makes us very excited for the future of design."

The FORM Student Innovation Competition opened on Sept. 5, 2017, to college students across the U.S. and Canada, and the entry submission period closed Nov. 10, 2017. Entries were judged on their use of Formica® Laminate colors and patterns, overall design aesthetics, the intersection of design and function, and the project statement submitted by each student. The competition awarded a total of $3,000 in prize winnings to the top three finalists. More information about the winning students' designs is available at formica.com/studentcompetition.

Details about the 2019 FORM Student Innovation Competition will become available on that site later this spring.

About Formica Corporation
Founded in 1913, Formica Corporation, part of the Formica Group of companies, is a leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative surfacing products for commercial and residential applications. For more information about Formica Corporation, its products, special programs and promotions, visit www.formica.com or call 1-800-FORMICA™.

About Formica Group
Formica Group is a global group of companies consisting of Formica Canada Inc., Formica Corporation, Formica de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Formica IKI Oy, Formica Skandinavien AB, Formica Limited, Formica S.A., Formica S.A.S., Formica Taiwan Corporation, Formica (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Formica (Asia) Ltd., Formica Decorative Materials (China) Co., Ltd. and Homapal GmbH, among others. The Formica Group of companies is part of the Laminates & Panels division of Fletcher Building.

Please Note: Formica®, Formica® Surfaces. For Real®, and the Formica® Anvil Logo, are registered trademarks of The Diller Corporation. 1-800-FORMICA™, is a trademark of The Diller Corporation.
All rights reserved. ©2018 The Diller Corporation. A member of the Fletcher Building Group.

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SOURCE Formica Corporation