Katlyn Ross (Industrial Design ’11) is among six students selected from 165 to receive an award in the 2011 International Housewares Association Student Design Competition.
Her submission titled “Quick-Fix” will be displayed at the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago this March.
The show features more than 60,000 professional attendees, 15,000 U.S. buyers and 6,000 international buyers from 100 countries on six continents.
Ross designed Quick-Fix as her senior Industrial Design course project.
“We were asked to choose a household product to design or redesign,” Ross said. “I have an interest in entering the medical design field after I graduate and decided to explore the redesign of a first aid kit.”
Quick-Fix features injury-specific treatment kits with graphics that indicate when to use each kit.
The graphics illustrate injuries such as cuts, burns, stings, eye injuries, breaks and sprains, and emergencies such as choking, poison, and suffocation.
“Most first aid kits are confusing and become easily disorganized,” Ross said. “And most consumers have no clue as to the proper treatment method of various injuries.”
Ross said Quick-Fix addresses those problems, and is designed to unfold and lie flat so supplies are presented in a neat, visual manner.
As part of her second place award, Ross will attend the International Home & Housewares Show all-expense-paid and receive a monetary prize.
Ross said she’ll use the monetary award toward future design work and that she is excited to share her design.
“I look forward to meeting the other student winners and other attendees of the show…and I plan to network all I can,” Ross said.
MIAD Industrial Design students have participated in the IHA Competition since its inception in 1993, and MIAD ranks third among schools with the most IHA awards.
Altogether, MIAD students- including Ross- have won 32 prizes and honorable mentions.
To read about Ross in the Sun Prairie Star, click here.
For more information on the International Home & Housewares Show in March, click here.
For more information on the Industrial Design major, recently named among the top ten in the nation, click here.
