Pratt Students Reveal Their Product Designs at Barnes & Noble

This week, 15 young Pratt design students showcased their final prototypes at the Barnes & Noble Design Challenge ceremony. The ceremony held at Barnes & Noble Union Square location, would award the Academic Choice Winner of the 2024 Design Challenge, as well as, a moment to celebrate the hard work put together by team members from both the Barnes & Noble and Kikkerland, and the Pratt faculty and students themselves.

Opening remarks by design visionary and Pratt professor, Constantin Boym, recapped the class journey, and thanked the partners involved. Then, one by one, each student gave brief presentations on their prototypes to the audience. The prompt was simple: design a product for book lovers using the Kikkerland character and Barnes & Noble appeal. The results however, were anything but.

The students idea’s ranged from adorable and kitschy—such as Lin Chen’s ‘Dog Pen Holder’, a series of enthusiastic tongue-hanging pups eager to hold your pen—to sleek and functional objects, like Zahra’a Nasralla’s ‘MarkBrite’, a dual functioning bookmark containing a slim & thick highlighter.  

Other highlights were a fun take on elevating the beach reading experience-- Joo Young's 'Beach Book Chair', designed a never before seen portable and adjustable chair for your book -- Faye Huang took the nostalgic image of vintage ticket boxes to make her 'Book Recommendation Tin' a whimsical book discovery tool, utilizing a QR code that links to the Barnes & Noble website. 

Following the student presentations, the design challenge jury's difficult task begun. The jury committee was made up of representatives from both Barnes & Noble and Kikkerland— including Barnes & Noble CEO, James Daunt, and Kikkerland founder, Jan van der Lande.

The design challenge jury carefully reviewed each design, highlighting their favorites and made the tough choice of who would be crowned winner. 

Now it is your turn to judge, vote now here to decide the Popular Choice Winner. Your vote will determine who will get a chance to have their product produced by Kikkerland and sold in Barnes & Noble and Paper Source stores. On January 5th, the Academic Choice Winner and Popular Choice Winner will be revealed. Stay tuned to find out who wins!