AN Oxford Brookes academic has been recognised for her ‘ambitious and experimental’ chair design at a prestigious design awards.

Furniture and design graduate Freya Whamond was awarded the The Alan Peters Award for Excellence for her chair design.

The ‘bud’ chair was described by the judges as “an ambitious and experimental design that represents a good attempt at creating a chair design that says something interesting in terms of its design – a notoriously difficult thing to achieve in chairs.

“The result is a visual feast that also demonstrates significant technical difficulty and innovation.”

Joseph Bray, Programme Leader of the Oxford Brookes University course said: “Whilst studying Freya has continuously shown evidence of excellence in both creativity and craftsmanship.

“The ‘Bud’ chair clearly demonstrates this in the unconventional laminated back support, that wraps itself around the frame”