In her path-breaking accomplishment on the world stage, Ms Aqsa Ajmal – an Industrial Design graduate from the NUST School of Art, Design & Architecture (SADA) – has made headlines for seizing a slot amongst the 6 global finalists for the prestigious Lexus Design Award
Islamabad (Pakistan Point News - 6th Feb, 2020) In her path-breaking accomplishment on the world stage, Ms Aqsa Ajmal – an Industrial Design graduate from the NUST School of Art, Design & Architecture (SADA) – has made headlines for seizing a slot amongst the 6 global finalists for the prestigious Lexus Design Award. Her phenomenal win, with her novel project ‘Pursewit,' has rendered Ms Aqsa the singular honour of being the first Pakistani to achieve the milestone.
Lexus announced the 6 finalists for the Lexus Design Award 2020 in the last week of January, from a record-setting 2042 entries from around 79 countries. The proposals were selected on the basis of their expression of the three key principles of the Lexus brand – Anticipate, Innovate, and Captivate – with an emphasis on design that leads to a better tomorrow.
Aqsa’s final-year project ‘Pursewit’ is a sewing machine exclusively designed for visually impaired people with low-income backgrounds. The machine is ergonomically designed and being developed with special embedded features to enable differently abled individuals to operate it without any hassle, and, in so doing, earn a livelihood for themselves and their families.
After attending a 3-day exclusive mentorship workshop in New York, USA, in the last week of January 2020, Ms Aqsa is currently working on her prototype under the supervision of co-inventor Mr Jawwad Zaidi, HoD Industrial Design at NUST SADA. She will showcase her prototype, along with prototypes of other 5 finalists, at the Milan Design Week in Italy, tentatively scheduled to be held in April 2020. Each finalist has received an amount of over USD 25,000 to cover prototype production costs.
First launched in 2013, the Lexus Design Award is an international design competition that targets up-and-coming creators from around the world. The award seeks to foster the growth of ideas that can potentially contribute to social uplift.
