Collaboration and creativity: Student duo shines in design competition
Left design by Jaydon Thompson; right by Aiden Spicer
Jaydon Thompson's salt and pepper mill set (left) and Aiden Spicer's rice measuring cup and companion paddle (right) were entered into Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Collab Student Design Competition, which challenged students across the country to submit original designs for a jury to review. Spicer placed third in the competition.
As the deadline for the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Collab Student Design Competition quickly approached, second-year RIT industrial design students Aiden Spicer and Jaydon Thompson leaned on one another.
While balancing their class schedules, the two worked side by side to each develop and submit their own original designs to the competition, which invites students from across the country to make a product based on a brief. This year, entries were dinner tabletop pieces following the design principles of Naoto Fukasawa, recipient of the 2024 Design Excellence Award from the museum’s Collab group.
Aiden Spicer
“Having a partner to share the design process with didn’t only impact the success of the final product but also made a big difference in my attitude toward the task,” said Spicer, whose rice measuring cup and paddle set earned third place in the juried competition. “Working together led to some of my most enjoyable parts of the project, like spending an entire day developing design ideas.”
The camaraderie of working together positively influenced the direction of the projects despite the students having separate final designs.
“On the collaborative side, (Spicer) helped me thoroughly take into account how to develop something that is creative and unique,” Thompson said. “When we collaborate he'll mention delivering solutions that are surprising and uncommon. I plan on making that an essential thought in my design process for the future. Having someone you can take a break with, talk to for a quick critique, or for confirmation that something makes sense is awesome.”
Jaydon Thompson
Thompson made an ergonomically-friendly, space-saving salt and pepper mill set equipped with a crank grinder instead of a twisting mechanism.
The project presented the challenge of studying a world-renowned designer like Fukasawa, and then creating a product based on personal interpretations of his philosophy.
“His work features minimalist form and materials, user experience, a sense of delight, and elements of humanism,” Spicer said. “With this in mind, I wanted to create associations between the product and its function. For example, the bubbles on the surface of the cup were meant to mimic grains of rice. This texturing was aimed at the intuition of users to create a subtle indication of the cup’s purpose; to gather rice.
“Small details like this can be found within every part of the product, coming together to make a holistically minimalist and humanist design.”
Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design Josh Owen, director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, served as a faculty mentor to Spicer and Thompson as they honed their ideas.
“I was honored that Aiden and Jaydon approached me for guidance," Owen said. "The level of seriousness and dedication that these two young students possess and exhibit is exemplary.”
“We had other projects and priorities, so taking this on was basically the same as taking on another class,” Thompson said. “There were new concepts to learn. What is minimalism? What is minimalism to Fukasawa? What choices do minimalist designers make and why? were just a few questions I had. I learned so much from this project. It was significantly rewarding, giving me a better understanding of the importance of people, decisions like presentation and material, and communication in a design.”