Helen Hamlyn Design Awards

Last updated 7 June 2021

The annual Helen Hamlyn Design Awards recognise the best RCA student projects that use design to improve people’s lives. It is a competition that rewards creativity in people-centred design across all disciplines of the College.

Helen Hamlyn Design Awards 2020

The annual Helen Hamlyn Design Awards recognise the best RCA student projects that use design to improve people’s lives. It is a competition that rewards creativity in people-centred design across all disciplines of the College.

This year's winners will be announced in an online ceremony on Friday 2 July 2021, 15.30–16.45 GMT+1.

Register Now for The Helen Hamlyn Design Awards Ceremony 2021 and be the first to discover our winners.

This year, we will be awarding prizes across the themes of disability, inclusion, social impact, technology and creativity.

The student awards are sponsored by industry partners. The Snowdon Trust will be awarding a £2,000 prize on the theme of disability, and Northumbrian Water Ltd. will be awarding a £2,000 on the theme of inclusive innovation.

Lady Helen Hamlyn, founder of the Helen Hamlyn Trust, will give her own personal award for creativity in design.

As well as the student awards, we will also present a Fixperts Award for the best project submitted as part of the Fixperts programme run through a global network of universities, a Helen Hamlyn Design Award for Alumni to a previous Research Associate of The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, and a Helen Hamlyn Design Award for an Inclusive Design Champion 2021.

Last year's Awards were presented during the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design’s Design.Different week, 12–16 October 2020 and were open to all RCA graduates who completed their programme between 8 July 2019 and 17 July 2020. A total of £7,000 in prize money was awarded across the themes of disability, inclusion, technology and creativity.

View the 2020 winning projects and shortlist

Previous Award Winners

Amir Afshar AMBL Technical Layers

Air it yourself

Design for our Future Selves Awards

The Design for our Future Selves Awards scheme ran at the Royal College of Art from 2000 to 2008. It aimed to encourage inclusive design projects from graduating RCA students that were responsive to human behaviour and based on real insight into social need. The awards grew out of the DesignAge Competition, which ran from 1992 to 1999, addressing the needs and aspirations of older people.

Awards 2008 and winning projects
Awards 2007 and winning projects