Interior Design Graduate Wins International Contest
A recent Radford graduate in Interior Design, Erica Campos (23), received the C-IDEA Design Award in the Architecture and Landscape category on September 3. Awards were presented in Bunde, Germany at the Bunde Museum.
Campos won for her Until Dawn Bar and Lounge design. The concept proposes a luxury venue in The Big Apple featuring high end hors d'oeuvres and cocktails that draws inspiration from images captured by NASA’s James Webb space telescope.
“As New York struggles with the effects of light pollution making it hard to see the stars,” Campos wrote, “Until Dawn captures the night sky in its place.”
“Using the blues and purples of the galaxy, Until Dawn captures the natural darkness of the night with a sense of sophistication and luxurious gold accents for a high-class experience among the stars.”
The competition was stiff for this award. According to the C-IDEA website, they received 2073 entries from 415 universities in 51 countries. Only 142 awards were given, meaning only less than 10 percent of entrants earned top honors.
The presenting organization, C-IDEA, provides professional support and development for designers through publications, forums, competitions, lectures and other events. Their annual awards process carries entries through three rounds and this year, 45 international design experts participated over the course of 10 days to arrive at their final choices.
Campos said this project was her favorite from her time at Radford and thanked Professor Laura C. Kimball and the Interior Design faculty “for helping me grow as a student and providing me the opportunity to flourish as a designer.”
The project developed in Professor Kimball's Senior Studio II: Hospitality, Food Service, & Retail course. Students apply the skills they have learned in previous courses to create interior designs for commercial spaces.
The hospitality project allows students to select a restaurant concept that is interesting to them and develop it from style to logo, food selection to finished space, while addressing a myriad of spatial and functional challenges.
"From that first design fundamentals class," Professor Kimball said, "Erica showed a deep passion for the environment and incorporated ecological awareness and sustainable practices throughout her design work."
She also praised Campos's design and presentation skills.
"Showing illumination is a challenge in creating photo-realistic images from design plan drawings," Kimball added.
"Erica did a phenomenal job bringing that stary night and dusk to dawn illumination to life within a darkened cocktail lounge environment."
