2023 Student Design Competition

Emerging Student Designers create vessels inspired by the work of Stephen Burks

This year’s 2023 Student Design Competition challenged students to create a vessel that blends the contemporary design and traditional global craft themes found in the work of Stephen Burks. Collab received 58 entries from six schools spanning three states, welcoming participants from Drexel University, Parsons-The New School, Rochester Institute and Technology, Rowan University, UArts, and University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). The four judges included furniture designer Jomo Tariku; critic, podcast-host, and assistant professor at Rhode Island School of Design, Amy Devers; founder and creative director of Philadelphia’s YOWIE, Shannon Maldonado; and curator of decorative arts at the High Museum in Atlanta, Monica Obniski, who curated the first iteration of Stephen Burks’s exhibition Shelter in Place.

Featured in the winning designs were elements of traditional weaving techniques, indigenous materials such as clay and wood, as well as themes of water filtration and sustainability. A total of 49 students and faculty logged on to an afternoon presentation of the winners and special mentions, with Jonah Goodman of Parsons School of Design taking home the first-place prize for his simple yet thoughtful design of a terracotta Kimchi vessel titled Terranova.

The winners and honorable mentions for 2023 are:

1st Place – TERRANOVA by Jonah Goodman of Parsons School of Design