Roulette student competition
The Cameron Day Charitable Trust are delighted to have partnered with the University of Lincoln and SODA Studio in London to create a live student competition in Cam’s memory.
The annual awards scheme was launched in April 2022, and was inspired by one of Cam’s favourite projects – and the one he described as a ‘game-changer’.
After Exit Velocity, a short employability project from Spring 2021, Cam was determined to use one of his final projects at university to completely push himself out of his comfort zone. A talk by Dr LJ Ducksbury (an educational psychologist) during Exit Velocity was profoundly impactful, and shortly afterwards, Cam began Russian Roulette, one of his final projects.
Everyone had picked a number and was given a starting statement, which could be explored in infinite ways. Cam’s was ‘I am the lie’. Other students who had that statement explored deception in nature to avoid predators and false memories amongst other subjects, and one student created a vegan food brand which pretended to be meat. But inspired by LJ’s talk he decided to look inward.
Cam was a self-confessed perfectionist whose work was always slick, professional and showed incredible attention to detail. Cam used this project to confront that perfectionism and explore the joys of imperfections in design – writing, designing and making a book which documented physical processes and his relationship with perfectionism. The book (perfectly made) went on to be highly commended at the British Book Design and Publication Awards in London, in November 2021. It was an emotional but very special night celebrating Cam’s achievements.
Cam’s family and tutor Rhona at the BBDP Awards in London, November 2021
Paralysed by Perfectionism showcased at the BBDP Awards
The project opened Cam’s eyes to the creative he could be, and was one of two projects he chose to focus on during his interview at SODA Studio in June 2021, where he was offered a job within 20 minutes.
After Cam’s death, the founder of SODA Russell Potter, Rhona and Cam’s family spoke about continuing Cam’s legacy. The significance of the Russian Roulette project felt like a great fit for a live student project, and the openness of the brief allowed students to tailor outcomes to their own interests and aspirations, further supporting the mission of The CDCT. Changing the name to Roulette due to world events, the SODA team developed 12 new statements, and offered to match cash prizes offered by The CDCT, plus a paid internship for the winner and mentor sessions for the two runners up. Lead and written by module lead and trustee Rhona and taught by Jez and Hayley, third year students produced some fantastic work.
We are so excited to see where Roulette goes in the future, and are so proud to be supporting students in Cam’s name.