This years` edition of the Deans` Choice Awards (DCA) 2016 occurred on the evening of May 18th,2016 to a packed house in the Conrod`s cafeteria area. The Deans` Andréa Cole, Donald Walker and Diane Gauvin, had made their choices based on the established criteria enunciated by Jacques Laval, instructor in the industrial design program and their own preferences earlier on in the afternoon of the same day.

The graduating recipient group was Industrial Design. What made the choice of winners especially challenging for the Deans was the sustainability design criteria.Products which were based on small everyday appliances needed to be rethought from a sustainability perspective.This meant that the local marketplace, availability of materials made within Canada, interchangeability of parts,easy assembly in the manufacturing process,ease of repair and replacement of parts, ease of handling and semantics had to be considered as criteria for judging. As Dean Gauvin described, it was difficult to make the choice largely due to the fact that it was to be a complex set of criteria not all of which were visible at first glance as you would see in an artwork. It required the textual/explanatory base of the design to be taken into consideration as well as the visuals for the product from every angle which would best show its functionality. That being said, three clear winners emerged. The 2 honourable mentions of $100 each were Alexander Levy and Sam Kandaleft  with the work of Rébecca Giasson, the winning design for $300.

Photos by ALC student Michael Hemingway