KUALA LUMPUR: An award-winning interior lighting designer and first time contestant, Stephanie Ng Hui Sien, 30, was announced the overall winner of the sixth Malaysian International Furniture Fair (MIFF) 2015 Design Competition which garnered 220 entries this year.
She walked away with RM10,000 cash for her product named, ‘Mick’s Deck Chair’ that would suit any occasion.
“I am always thinking of myself when I design so that inspiration would be drawn from what I would like in my home, had I needed a lounge chair like this. I feel a certain mood and wanted to reflect it through the furniture that I use,” she told Bernama of what inspired her to design the chair.
The prizes, sponsored by the Malaysian Timber Council this year, were presented by Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Lee Chee Leong.
The design competition was organised by UBM Malaysia, the organiser of MIFF 2015 carrying the theme, ‘Living Furniture, Global Perspective’ with timber as the main material.
Working with manufacturer Supreme Tropical Furniture to produce a prototype, Ng juggled with different species of wood and fabric and finally submitted her first winning piece of furniture made of Malaysian Relau Balau hardwood with grooves alongside the frame to allow upholstery to be easily switched for a relaxing or a formal sit-down.
In 2013, Ng won the Best Concept Award at The Edge, an emerging furniture design competition at the Australian International Furniture Fair, with a modular lighting system called ‘Halo Light’.
Taking second place in the competition was Alice Lee Pei Ling with ‘Back To Basics’, a versatile cuboid that can be transformed into a seat, coffee table or rack, while Wan Nurhanis Farisa Aziman emerged third with a curvy ‘Infinity Lounge Chair’ modelled after the human body.
The competition, which had 10 finalists, was judged by a seven-member local and international panellist headed by China-based Malaysian designer Philip Yap. -- Bernama