Young designers in the limelight

Future fashionistas, landscape architects, artists and designers from
around New Zealand gather together this Saturday night to celebrate the
17th annual Young Designer Awards.

Nearly 500 entries were received for this year's awards, which will be
held in the Christchurch Boys High School auditorium, starting at 7.30pm
on Saturday, October 18.

Young Designer Awards Trustee and Canterbury Development Corporation
Project Manager Adele Wilkinson says the awards are an opportunity for
intermediate and secondary school students to work across a number of
disciplines to develop designs with real life briefs.

"The Awards are designed to increase awareness of good design, in an
effort to attract young people into careers in the different areas of
design. And the awards function itself is a good opportunity for
teachers and students to connect to the design industry," Ms Wilkinson
says.

"Apprentices" in fashion photography and assistant producers are drawn
from local secondary schools and university to assist with the event.
Models are sourced from the Anna Lee School of dance, the MC is a senior
Burnside High School student and several local sponsors support the lead
national sponsors, Bernina and Youthtown.

Local sponsors include: AMG graphic design, Taurus Group, McBrearty &
Associates, Anna Lee School of Dance, J Ballantyne & Co, Rhodes Rentals,
Affordable Elegance, Vitc, Christchurch Boys High School, Linda
Ponsonby, Himi Ratnakar, Arjee Bhajee, Couplands, Tandem Voice Booth,
Giora Dan, Weft Industries, Cotura, Marian College, Wendy Hill and Midge
Holding.

One of last year's scholarship winners, Sarah Parker, will speak at the
awards about her time studying design in Italy.

Tickets for the Young Designer Awards are available on the door for $5.