Bothell resident Ashkon Nima picked up the student choice award for his design of a light table at a design competition last week.

Nima is one out of six students from Western Washington University’s Industrial Design program that received recognition scholarship money for his design as a part of the annual Mount Baker Products Furniture Design Competition. The objective of the contest was to design and construct a unique furniture solution for storage.  The storage is to be designed specifically for another person or organization for their current needs, and was given to that person or organization as a gift after the contest was finished.

A panel of six local judges selected the winning designs among 21 different student projects.

Nima received a $300 scholarship for “Starlight Table,” a light table for exploring biology and color for the Bellingham Childcare and Education Center. Entries were judged on concept, creativity, functionality, structure, craftsmanship and form.

Nima was judged by Lisa Van Doren, owner of IDEAL in Bellingham; Kyle Thomas, lead industrial designer at Architectural Elements in Bellingham; Arunas Oslapas, professor of Industrial Design at Western; Darrin Seeds, industrial designer at Transition Bikes in Ferndale; Joe Clark, owner of Architectural Elements in Bellingham; and Michael Flaherty, woodworker at Flaherty Woodworking in Bellingham.