The Art Institute of Portland and IKEA Portland Award Student Designers

The Art Institute of Portland and IKEA Portland announced the winning student designers in the IKEA Dress Me Up! Competition to support design education in December.

Three participants will earn tuition scholarships for demonstrating their decorating talents by “dressing up” a TARVA 3-Drawer Pine Chest by IKEA. Sara Van Dyke, a student in the Graphic Design Bachelor of Fine Arts program, ranked first place for her design.  Paula Hopker, also a student in the Graphic Design Bachelor of Fine Arts program, placed second; and Minh Duong, an Interior Design Bachelor of Fine Arts student, came in third.

During the month of December, the dressers, brought to life from their proposals, will be on display at The Art Institute of Portland campus located at 1122 NW Davis Street. In January, the pieces will be transported to IKEA Portland at 10280 Northeast Cascades Parkway for display and auction in February. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the World Forestry Center.

IKEA Portland Marketing & PR Specialist April Minister expressed an excitement for connecting with the aspiring designers. “Working with The Art Institute of Portland has been a great way to encourage the artistic talents of budding designers and to advance the democratic design process that IKEA values,” said Minister.  “Design is art, and we are pleased to continue to support it through education and collaboration.”

Earlier this year, IKEA Portland teamed up with the Interior Design department at The Art Institute of Portland to compete in the Serving Up Style event at the Portland Home & Garden Show. The joint design team earned the Story Telling Award with a tableau capturing childhood imagination and whimsy.

Full-time Interior Design instructor and member of The Art Institute of Portland’s Faculty Council Beth Stokes remarked on the creativity and family-friendly designs. “We received inspired and artistic proposals representing a remarkable range of our programs - Interior Design, Industrial Design, Graphic Design as well as Media Arts & Animation,” said Stokes, who facilitated the student participation and judging process. “In the end, the judges selected the top three designs based upon originality and creativity of the idea, good use of materials, quality of craftsmanship and the visual impact of the design. The transformation of these dressers is amazing and the students involved truly made the simple extraordinary,” added Stokes, MA Ed., IDEC, IIDA.

The IKEA Design Scholarship will be administered to the winning students by The Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides scholarship to students who attend The Art Institutes schools.

About The Art Institute of Portland

The Art Institute of Portland (www.artinstitutes.edu/portland) is part of The Art Institutes, a system of more than 50 schools located throughout North America. The Art Institutes schools provide an important source of education for design, media arts, fashion and culinary professionals. Several institutions of The Art Institutes system are campuses of South University or Argosy University. See aiprograms.info for program duration, tuition, fees, and other costs, median debt, federal salary data, alumni success, and other important info.

About IKEA

IKEA, drawing from its Swedish heritage and respect of nature, believes it can be a good business while doing good business and aims for its operations to minimize impacts on the environment.  Globally, IKEA evaluates all locations regularly for energy conservation opportunities, integrates innovative materials into product design, works with Global Forest Watch to maintain sustainable resources, and flat-packs goods for efficient distribution.  Specific U.S. sustainable efforts include: recycling waste material (paper, wood, plastic, etc.); incorporating environmental measures into the construction of buildings in terms of energy-efficient HVAC and lighting systems, recycled construction materials, skylights in warehouse areas, and water conserving restrooms; and operationally, eliminating plastic bags from the check-out process, phasing out the sale of incandescent light bulbs and facilitating recycling of customers’ compact fluorescent bulbs.  IKEA also installed electric vehicle charging stations at nine stores in the Western U.S., including IKEA Portland.

Located on 19 acres at Airport Blvd and Interstate 205, the 280,000-s.f. IKEA Portland opened July 2007 and employs more than 300 coworkers.  In addition to nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items, IKEA Portland presents 43 different room-settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children’s play area, and a 350-seat restaurant.  Other family-friendly features include a Children’s IKEA area in the Showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking and play areas throughout the store.  IKEA Portland was awarded LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council and offers a $20 home delivery discount to customers who visit the store via MAX light rail, which stops at the Cascades station in front of the store.

IKEA strives to be ‘The Life Improvement Store,’ and since its 1943 founding in Sweden, has offered home furnishings of good design and function, at low prices so the majority of people can afford them.  There are currently more than 330 IKEA stores in 40 countries, including 38 in the U.S.  IKEA incorporates sustainable efforts into day-to-day business and supports initiatives that benefit children and the environment.  For more information, go to IKEA-USA.com.