Through our Live 2-Day Project, up-and-coming designers respond to an open design-led brief over 2 days with mentorship from leading creative agencies before a shortlisted group present their ideas to an internationally renowned jury in the battle for ‘GDFS best up-and-coming’ award!

Taking place in The Lighthouse, 120 participants gathered together in the hub before spending the next two days responding to the brief written by Danielle Pender, editor in chief and founder of Riposte magazine.

The brief asked the group to react to the trend of “realness” (craft beer, bake offs, brand heritage) and create a product, service, experience or brand that suggests what the future holds. Challenging though it was, everyone got stuck in with the help of some fantastic mentors giving them guidance where needed.

On the jury this year we proudly welcomed; Danielle Pender of Riposte magazine, It’s Nice That, Creative Review and Creative Scotland.

The 11 mentor agencies included: Freytag Anderson, Touch, MadeBrave, O Street, Graphical House, Kerr Vernon, JamHot, Tangent, Recoat, STV Creative and D8 who each presented themselves and their studio work to start the day off.

By the end of the first day the Lighthouse was filled with scribbled-on pieces of paper and empty coffee cups, thousands of ideas had been thrown around and most left with a clear plan of how they were going to visualise their thinking the next day.

After a day of solid work and feedback, the participants presented their work within their group and to their respective mentor, who then selected two participants to present to the judges and be shortlisted for overall first, second and third prize.

Everyone gathered in the hub to hear the presentations of the final 22 projects and the judges – Danielle (Riposte), Jamie (It’s Nice That), Rachael (Creative Review) and Andrew Leitch (Creative Scotland) then got together to judge who they thought had produced the most innovative response to the brief.

The winners were announced to raucous cheers: in third place was Courtney Gordon, in second was Alice Wheeler and in first James Crossley for his idea of futuristic pills, which when taken produce the ultimate sexual sensation – according to your individual hormone levels and biological make up – in response to frequently awful one-night stand experiences. An excellent evening with plenty of Tennent’s flowing throughout.

All of 22 of the shortlisted participants were offered work placements with the agency they worked alongside through the project and this year an additional two  opportunities were offered within the creative industry across Scotland. With 120 keen participants, this is a great achievement!

Find out more about the winners and their winning ideas here: http://graphicdesignfestivalscotland.com/2016/the-future-of-sex/

Photographs by Gordon Burniston.