Karunadhipathi Lihin Weera, a senior at Toronto’s Ryerson University, was awarded the 2017 Contemporary-Modern Furniture Student Design scholarship at the New York Design Center during What’s New, What’s Next. The scholarship, worth $3,000, was sponsored by International Furnishings and Design Association Educational Foundation and Cliff Young.
“We were thrilled to sponsor this exciting competition along with our partners at the IFDA-EF, who are doing great work to support the next generation of leading designers,” says Leslie Young Zarra, CEO of Cliff Young. “And mentorship has always been an important aspect of what we do at Cliff Young.”
Zarra, Caleb Anderson of Drake/Anderson Design, Michel Smith Boyd of SmithBoyd Interiors and Tori Mellott of Traditional Home magazine, were the judges who selected Lihin Weere’s submission, which he described as “the interlocking of two stools that form into a table.” During the event, he had a fabrication of the design on display.
Four entries were also selected as honorable mentions: Ben Bridges and John Barton, students at Appalachian State University; Ornelia Gorges, a student at the College for Creative Studies; and Bryan Haberstroh, a student at New Jersey Institute of Technology.