We are delighted and proud to share that the Bradfield College Design team has been awarded the Cenata Excellence Award for Outstanding Departmental Team 2025 at the 25th annual Design and Technology Association Excellence Awards, held last week at the Triumph Motorcycles headquarters in Hinckley, Leicestershire. The D&T Excellence Awards, established in 1999, shine a spotlight on outstanding achievements across education, industry and research. Winners are nominated by their peers from across the country, making this a special recognition of the impact they have made both locally and nationally.
Led by Nick Mills, the department has reimagined what a truly modern Design education looks like — from delivering engaging online learning during lockdown to creating a curriculum that’s live, relevant, and rooted in real-world design practice.
Working collaboratively and creatively, the team have:
- Built a flexible, student-led curriculum that evolves every year
- Partnered with organisations including Space Oasis, Philips Hue and the charities Mind and Against Arthritis to deliver live briefs
- Launched the UK’s first school-based Bamboo Bicycle Club (featured in DATA’s Practice, Jan 2024)
- Introduced robotics and engineering challenges to bridge Design and Computer Science
- Grown student numbers year-on-year, with increasing gender balance and outstanding results
The shared ethos — real design for real impact — underpins everything they do making Bradfield Design not just a department, but a thriving creative community.
