You’ve designed, you donated donated to Noyce Gardens DIY and now it’s time to share who won! There were some incredible entries, so we were grateful the final votes weren’t down to us…
The People’s Choice vote
Did you find your design at our skateboard exhibition during the festival? We created our very own skate shop exhibition in the Royal Arcade showcasing the fabulous work created by the students at Jewell Academy & The Bishop of Winchester Academy during workshops with MBN Arts. Not only did we want to share all of your designs but we wanted to let you, the people vote! Here’s your favourites:
Congratulations to Eleanor who has won £30 to spend at Moose Skates and Matilda who has won a Creative Kids Workshop voucher.
Design a Deck Winners
Here are the overall winners chosen by Eloise Dörr, Soy Panday & Fin our Youth Ambassador:
Huge congratulations to Lauren Marina who’s deck design will be put into production and enjoy £150 to spend at Moose Skates and to Lil Lit who has won £50 to spend at Moose Skates too.
Say hello to Lauren
It seemed only right for us to get to know our winners a little better, so we chatted with our Over 18’s winner Lauren Marina to find out more about her winning design and whether she’ll be skating on her own deck:
Congrats on winning! What drew you to the competition in the first place?
I spotted the competition on Instagram and just thought it was such a fun concept! I really enjoy applying my illustrations to unusual end formats, I think that’s where my love for both illustration and surface design collide. The thought of having my work on something as cool as a deck was too good an opportunity to miss. I am also a local and it’s important to me to lean into the creative network here, and just get involved with like-minded souls.
Tell us a bit about the design you created for the competition
My ‘flock’ design is a wobbly pattern of a flying group of birds. These birds have become a bit of a stamp for me, they tend to pop up throughout my illustrations. I like how there is such a sense of movement made through the pencil lines. So for me, this had to go on the deck, because of that sense of flowing, effortless movement, mirroring the skating vibe.
We bet you can’t wait to see it printed on a skateboard! Will you ride one do you think?
I cannot wait! I am so excited to see it printed. And hell yeah I’m going to be riding it! If there was ever a time to learn, it’s now on my own deck design! I’ve actually been watching a lot of the women’s skating at the Olympics in awe and admiration so I’ve been wondering if that actually aided the manifestation of winning this competition!
What was your favourite part of the BEAF festival this year?
Honestly, as soon as I walked into the B.A.D. gallery opening, with all the art and all the people, I had such a sense of relief after the last 18 months. It was so fantastic to be in a thoughtful, arty space again with all the inspiration that it brings! I was very much moved by the Seeking Refuge photography exhibition which did a fantastic job of injecting humanity, emotion and feeling back into a subject that often lacks all of these in the media.
You were recently featured as part of the #LetsDoLondonBetter campaign in Westfield London. Tell us a bit about the importance of showcasing independent artists in spaces?
Art in public spaces encourages the creative juices to flow, to inspire, and to provoke thought and depth of feeling. With so much to unsettle us, I believe public art can provide so much balance – and by allowing art to break free of galleries and private spaces, you loosen the privileges around who can enjoy art too.
A big thank you to Lauren for chatting with us! Check out more of her amazing work on the gram’ or in real life at Pen Gallery!
More Good News
Alongside encouraging you to get creative, we also wanted use this competition to raise awareness and funds for the amazing work being done by Noyce Gardens DIY to revamp an abandoned skate park in Townsend. Thanks to all of your generosity and community spirit, we have raised £500 for materials, which is going to be vital for the completion of this great project. Follow the project here.
Thank YOU
Thank you to every one of you that entered and donated. We were blown away by the quality of your work. Another big thank you goes out to our panel of judges Eloise Dörr, Soy Panday and Fin for taking on the huge task of choosing our winners. We’d also like to give a special thanks to Moose Skates for providing the winning prizes and to MBN Arts for putting together some super exciting workshops! Keep your eyes on our gram’ for our next competition, we love seeing you get creative!
