The Scottish Government and V&A Dundee museum have launched the competition to design a baby box to be given to all newborn children
A competition to design a box of essentials to be given to every newborn child in Scotland at birth has been launched, in an effort to give every child born in Scotland an equal start in life.
The Scottish Baby Box will be based on the successful Finnish model – where it is credited with contributing to one of the lowest levels of infant mortality in the world.
Delivered by the Scottish Government, with the help of the V&A Dundee and Scotland’s colleges and universities, the competition has been launched to design the surface of the box in aid to make it a more than simply a container of items, but a way in which the child’s first year can be captured and recorded.
With around 56,000 births in Scotland each year, the first Baby Boxes – full of clothes, bedding, books and mother and baby care items – will be delivered to babies born in pilot areas on New Year’s Day 2017.
The brief
Exploring the theme of Children’s Rights, such as ‘Play’ or ‘the right to family life’, designers are tasked with creating a surface design that covers the lid and sides of the Baby Box.
The lid should have an extra dimension – it should contain the opportunity for families to interact with it, by customising the box to record key stages in baby’s first year with information and visuals.
For example, to record name, date of birth or weight, and perhaps include space for their hand or footprint.
The prize
The winning student will receive a cash prize of £1000.
As part of their prize, the winning student will also benefit from exclusive mentoring from leading Scottish designers Holly Fulton and Scott Jarvie.
Closing date for initial submissions is 5pm on Thursday 17 November 2016.
The design competition is open to all registered college and university students across Scotland. Students must be studying at SCQF levels 7-12, including HNC, HND and degree level.
The winning design will be put into production and rolled out on every Baby Box from summer 2017 until March 2019.
