SCHOOLS YEARLY PROGRAMME
Design Ventura
A free, annual design challenge for students in years 9, 10 and 11, run by the Design Museum and supported by Deutsche Bank as part of its global youth engagement programme Born to Be.
How does it work?
Design Ventura brings the business of design to life. Created in partnership with Deutsche Bank, the programme encourage participant school groups to answer a live brief to design a new product for our museum shop. The challenge gives students a real-world context for learning, providing them with first-hand experience of the importance of design in our economy and society, as well as sustainable design values and principles.
Taking a competition format, students are challenged to design a new product to be sold at the Design Museum Shop . Teachers deliver the project in their schools, giving students the chance to tackle a real-world design brief and develop creative thinking, problem-solving, teamwork and enterprise skills, aligned to the national curriculum.
Each year, the top ten shortlisted schools are invited to pitch their product ideas to a panel of expert judges. The winning idea is then made and sold in the museum's online and onsite shops, with all proceeds going to a charity of the winner team’s choosing.
Since the Design Ventura programme launched in 2010, it has seen over 110,000 students from 2,500 schools participate and raised more than £15,000 for charity.
Support and benefits for registered schools
• Free teacher CPD sessions
• Free online resources, including workshop plans and films
• Free museum workshops supported by design and industry professionals for UK state schools
• Free online workshops led by museum educators for UK state schools based outside of London
• Flexible project structure that can be run in lessons, as an extra-curricular activity, a STEM/STEAM project or towards CREST award or Arts Mark
• Support from the Design Ventura team
• All participating students receive certificates
• The top ten ideas are displayed in a public exhibition at the Design Museum
• The winning team will work with professional designers to see their idea manufactured and sold in the Design Museum shop
• Separate International and Independent Schools Category
How to participate
Who can apply?
• Students in years 9, 10 and 11
• Both UK secondary schools and British international schools can register for the project
• Minimum of 4 students per school, no maximum
• D&T, A&D, Business & Enterprise Students and related creative subjects
• International and Independent schools are welcome to participate but compete for a different, separate prize.
PLEASE NOTE
Applications for the 2024–2025 challenge will open soon. Please keep an eye on the website and our school newsletters to be the first to know about future opportunities.
What do teachers and students say?
‘I will be doing this project again. It gives a brilliant insight into the complexity of designing from a brief (good preparation for the NEA contextual challenges) and a wonderful opportunity for working as a group.’ Participating Teacher 2019/2020
'It made me realise that there is a lot more to designing than I originally thought and gave me a better idea of how the GCSE course work will be.' Participating Student 2019/2020
Background image: Design Ventura 23-24 winning school.