University News Last updated 05 July 2018
BA (Hons) Graphic Communication student, Ruth Yeates has won the MUJI Birmingham Tote Bag Competition, winning her beautifully designed bag a space in the shop window and a section in the shop where they are displayed and sold to the public.
The competition was launched to celebrate the reopening of the New Street store and on occasion of the inaugural Birmingham Design Festival. The design of the bags was open for interpretation as long as it represented the culture of Birmingham in some way.
Ruth’s response to the brief was directly linked to the MUJI store and the building hosting it on New Street, Birmingham.
Ruth’s final design was a pen line drawing of the Birmingham MUJI store building, created using MUJI pens and stationary. Ruth decided on her final piece to contribute to the marketing of the shop by showing its location and highlighting the beauty of the architecture and heritage around it.
The competition was entered by around 40 people and the winner was chosen by the Marketing Team at MUJI. Ruth’s bag was joined by those of 10 runners up and they were all displayed in the shop window.
As part of the prize, Ruth met the head of Design and Marketing, and a Graphic Designer from MUJI to talk about the brand and their work in the industry.
“Seeing my bag for the first time printed, not only displayed in the window but to be sold in the store is the most amazing feeling ever! I cried the first time I saw the display in the store, it means the absolute world to me.”
