<p>Late last year Andres was selected by Princess Yachts as the winner of a competitive live brief for students of Plymouth College of Art to design an ‘untippable’ martini glass. Andres was subsequently invited to launch the bespoke set of glasses globally at <a href="https://www.boat-duesseldorf.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">boot Düsseldorf</a>, the world’s biggest international water sports trade fair, before the glasses are put into production as part of a special gift set for Princess customers.</p> <p>Nearly 250,000 people attended boot Düsseldorf 2019, from over 100 countries. Visitors to the <a href="https://www.princessyachts.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Princess Yachts</a> stand at the exhibition were able to meet Andres, find out about his design process and try out prototypes of his extremely limited edition ‘untippable’ martini glasses.<br /></p>

<p>Andres said: “I met so many people in Düsseldorf who wanted to talk about my working methods and inspiration. It was thrilling to discuss my design process with visitors, who were eager to find out how they could own a set of the glasses that I designed.</p> <p>Networking with industry figures from so many different fields at boot Düsseldorf was incredibly motivating. This whole experience has shown me that, with dedication and hard work, I can reach a professional standard of design that sits comfortably alongside big brand names from around the world.</p> <p>“After graduation I want to find somewhere that I can continue to work as a designer, making prototypes and making things happen. Having collaborated with Princess Yachts, I feel confident that I’ll have the opportunity to continue doing what I love best.”<br /></p>

<p>Following the pitching session when Andres won the opportunity to design for Princess Yachts, Marketing Director Kiran Haslam said: “It is clear to see that the very special ethos of Plymouth College of Art is shaping the next generation of creative and industrious minds that firms such as ourselves here at Princess are eager to engage with."</p> <p>"This challenging design task follows a series of successful projects between Princess and Plymouth College of Art, with each project forming part of the course curriculum, enabling students to work towards a proposal with a genuine industrial or manufacturing outlook, and with each project playing a part in Princess’ brand activation. We were totally blown away with the entries, and feel truly fortunate to have the future leaders of industry in a unique talent pool, right here in Plymouth.”<br /></p>

<p>Andres Boraita is a second-year Erasmus+ student, studying at Plymouth College of Art from Escueka Superior de Diseno de Madrid, Spain. He won the opportunity to design the ‘untippable’ martini glass as part of a live brief set to BA (Hons) Product Design &amp; Innovation and BA (Hons) and 3D Design Crafts students from Plymouth College of Art. The winning design needed to demonstrate a clear solution to the brief considering practicality and usability, exceptional quality and craftsmanship both in the product and packaging, be commercially viable and designed with a luxury yacht customer in mind.</p> <p>Speaking of the live brief for Princess Yachts, Kevin Jenkins, BA (Hons) Product Design &amp; Innovation Programme Leader at Plymouth College of Art said: “Andres’ work stood out immediately. Within a day of visiting Princess Yachts he had developed six different viable solutions to the problem of designing the ‘untippable’ martini glass. Andres developed new skills across almost every area of the college, learning wood-turning to create one of his moulds and learning metal-casting to create the pewter base."<br /></p>

<p>“From sketching concepts digitally and designing prototypes for 3D printing in <a href="https://fablabplymouth.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fab Lab Plymouth</a>, to working with technicians in the glass studios to blow hot glass into a plaster mould, every aspect of the design required a new skill and Andres collaborated with specialists in each area to get the job done.”</p> <p>Live briefs, guest lectures and creative industry internships play a key role in our undergraduate degrees. Other big brand names that students have collaborated with recently include Penguin Random House, Vitra, Amazon Fashion, Lush, Hubbox and many more.</p>

<p><strong>BA (Hons) Product Design &amp; Innovation, which is not accepting entries for 2018 and 2019, is part of our new School of Design + Communication. If you're interested in studying design and how it interacts with the environment, email Peter Barker (<a href="mailto:pbarker@pca.ac.uk">pbarker@pca.ac.uk</a>), our Head of School, Design + Communication to discuss options.</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-craft-material-practices" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apply to join our BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts</a></li><li><a href="https://www.princessyachts.com/our-craft/r-class/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">See the revolutionary Princess Yachts R35 camouflage created by our Printed Textile Design &amp; Surface Pattern students</a></li><li><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/posts/students-design-the-untippable-martini-glass-for-princess-yachts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Find out more about the live brief that led to the creation of the 'untippable' martini glass</a></li></ul>