Oranjekloof Moravian Primary School in Hout Bay has a new colourful look – all thanks to first year interior decorating student and Plascon Colour Design Awards winner Shani Bijleveld.
Bijleveld, from Design Time School of Interior Design, chose this school as a canvas for her entry. Her winning design incorporated bold shades of orange and blue, including Atlantic Beach, Plascon’s Colour of the Year for 2016.
The vibrant complementary colours were used in patterns inspired by Xhosa beadwork, thereby acknowledging the cultural heritage of the majority of learners at the school.
The school has about 1200 learners from Grade R to Grade 7. Most of them are from Imizamo Yethu informal settlement.
The winner of the annual Plascon Colour Design Awards was officially announced at 100% Design South Africa, held at Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg from Friday 5 to Tuesday 9 August.
This year’s competition was aimed exclusively at South African students of architecture and interior design.
Second and third place went to Athena Strates and Janine De Bruin respectively, who are also students at Design Time.
Powered by South Africa’s leading coatings company, the Plascon Colour Design Awards celebrate colour, design and creativity. Under the theme #colourcan, the brief for this year’s competition was to create a design that would uplift an existing school or educational institution building using Plascon’s Inspired Colour range.
“The Plascon Colour Design Awards are centered around creative thinking and making the world better through the use of colour,” says Anne Roselt, Plascon’s global colour manager and the driving force behind the awards.
“At Plascon, we know that creative thinkers – like our winners – have the power to change the world for the better and we’re also big supporters of budding design and architectural talent. We asked the participants to reimagine a space using our range of colours. The main aim was to make the space inspiring and empowering for the learners or students,” says Roselt.
Bijleveld’s winning design was chosen from among 120 entries received – over 40 more entries than the previous year.
“I feel overwhelmed,” says Bijleveld. “This is one of the biggest competitions I have ever won. This stands to show that I’m on the right path with the course that I’m doing. I’m so excited,” she says
Rosevelt adds: “Due to the large number of entries, there were two rounds of judging with each judge explaining why they thought a particular entry should be shortlisted. One thing was unanimous: the standard of entries this year was outstanding!”
As her prize, Bijleveld wins a trip to London Design Week 2016. The prize is valued at R40 000. The two runners-up will each receive cash prizes of R5 000. The top three students also receive R5 000 for their educational institution.
