2016 marks the third year of Forestside’s Young Designer of the Year competition and every year, the standard of design never ceases to amaze us.

Six schools took part in this year’s competition; Friends’ School, Lisburn; Bangor Grammar School, Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School, Wellington College Belfast, Assumption Grammar School and Our Lady and St. Patrick’s College, Knock; and each entered the best of their GCSE or ‘A’ Level design concepts for judging.

The students were asked to talk through their designs from conception to development and production and justify the need for their product, and all students did extremely well. Designs were judged by Lee, Centre Manager along with Goretta Fegan, Interior Designer. Ingenious inventions such as timing devices and maths puzzles to make learning easier were built and exhibited on mall for the public to view and they certainly attracted a lot of attention and admiration from Forestside customers. The winning entry was a portable duel fuel camping stove submitted by Tim Cunningham from Aquinas Grammar School, congratulations Tim, a very worthy winner.

Thanks to all the students who took part and the teachers who helped bring their ideas to life. The winner received a Samsung tablet and the runners up were presented with Forestside gift cards. We wish all of these talented young students every success for the future.