Students design trophies for Welsh music awards

Students from a Welsh college of art have collaborated with a Welsh-language magazine to design and create special trophies for the recent Gwobrau’r Selar music awards.

Each year, students from University of Wales Trinity St David set out to create a unique trophy that gives them the platform to showcase their creative ability.

This year, the awards have been created by Jake England, a third year BA Product Design student, and Ffion Williams, a third year student on the BA Product Design and Furniture course.

While Ffion appreciates the breadth of her course, she feels very passionate about the practical aspects of design. For her, making models and building objects are the most rewarding elements of her studies, enabling her to transform ideas into concrete results.

Ffion explained: “Seeing a concept develop from initial sketches to a fully developed piece is satisfying and stimulating.”

Using the familiar act of drinking through a straw as inspiration, Ffion designed a trophy that represents the way we experience and use musical content.

She added: “The cup symbolises a vessel of value, with the music notes inside representing the liquid. The headphones act like a straw, mirroring the equipment we use to access and absorb what’s in the cup. Through this metaphor, the design highlights how music, like food or drink, sustains us in meaningful ways.

“Essentially, the trophy celebrates the cultural and emotional nourishment that music provides.”

When Jake is designing, he likes to combine traditional hand-drawn sketching and modelling techniques with digital design and production methods in order to bring his ideas to life.

Jake said: “I’m an avid collector of music in every form I can get my hands on, whether it’s on cassette, vinyl or CD. When I was tasked with designing an award for Gwobrau’r Selar 2025, I jumped at the opportunity to convey my love of music by creating something that someone could be proud to own.”

Jake decided to create a small-scale model of a full-size speaker – a natural object for him as it is the way he listens to music.

He added: “I aimed to make the speaker look as realistic and true to its full-size design as possible, while also offering a unique feel to each award by varying their colours, so that each winner feels they have something truly unique to take home.”

Gwenllian Beynon, Assistant Academic Director of Arts and Media and co-ordinator of Welsh language provision at Swansea College of Art at UWTSD, stated: “I really like to encourage students to create awards for Gwobrau’r Selar each year. The intention of creating the awards, as well as celebrating winners in the world of music, is to also celebrate the art of the students. When I attended the awards night, it was great to see the winners so happy with their prizes.”

The Gwobrau’r Selar awards ceremony is organised by the Welsh language music magazine,  Y Selar.

Owain Schiavone, the event’s organiser, said: “It is a pleasure once again to collaborate with the University and offer two young artists the opportunity to create our awards. The artwork was very unique this year, and very different from anything we’ve had in the past.

“The artists always love to win, but they are also always very appreciative of the unique trophies they receive, and I’m sure these will have a worthy place in the winners’ homes.”

For more information about the Gwobrau’r Selar, visit their site here.