Groovystuff, Auburn U. Renew Partnership

September 9, 2012  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Green on September 10, 2012

Reclaimed teak furniture vendor Groovystuff and Auburn University will partner again for the Groovystuff: By Design Challenge.

Popularity for the Groovystuff: By Design Challenge has grown so much within the Industrial Design department at Auburn that professor Tin-Man Lau has now included the challenge in two different classes to accommodate the rapidly growing student interest.
 
Twenty two students under the leadership of Professor Tin-Man Lau are charged with designing a furniture, lighting, or home décor product that emphasizes form, structure, and sustainable manufacturing practice using the reclaimed materials found in the Groovystuff brand. The student design must be aesthetically pleasing, expressive, innovative, and considered for mass-production and inclusion in the exclusive, celebrity endorsed, Dick Idol Legends Collection.
 
Professor Tin-Man Lau is originally from Hong Kong, and he received a B.S. in Industrial Design from the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, a M.A. in Industrial Design from Ohio State University, and has been a faculty member at Auburn University teaching both undergraduate and graduate design courses since 1986. In 2007, Professor Lau was named by Design Intelligence Magazine as one of only four Industrial Design Educators of the Year. In both 2008 and 2009, Design Intelligence Magazine, named Professor Lau as one of the 25 Most Admired Educators of the Year.
 
To properly introduce future graduates to the residential home furnishings market, the Groovystuff: By Design Challenge is set up as a two stage process. For stage one of the contest, students will be competing for the Popular Vote at Market and a cash prize, by submitting a 20 by 30-inch product board, a ¼ scale model, and a 42-inch tall pedestal for display and presentation of their models to the retailers, designers, and trade professionals attending the Oct. 13-18 High Point Furniture Market.

For stage two, Groovystuff will put those designs into production and launch the finished goods six months later at the April 2013 High Point Furniture Market. Students then will compete for the grand prize: Most Written Orders at Market and rewarded with an additional cash prize, inclusion in the celebrity endorsed Dick Idol Legends Collection, permanent royalties for life, and a reason to join the residential home furnishing industry.
 
For the High Point Market, Groovystuff and co-sponsor International Market Centers help broaden the educational outreach of university programs across the country by giving them real world market experience and exposure in The University Hall of Design and Innovation, a sponsored space at market that provides future graduates with networking opportunities and a platform to build on their association with the industry prior to graduation.