Summary:
Gargi Agrawalla, a final-year Product Design and Technology student at Loughborough University, has won an international jewelry design competition for hearing device users, with her creation now supporting a UK charity for deaf children.
Key Takeaways:
- Gargi’s winning “Junkyard Dog Flower” design celebrates personal identity and resilience, inspired by her own journey with hearing aids and cochlear implants.
- The jewelry, made by DeafMetal, can be worn with cochlear implants or hearing aids and symbolizes pride, growth, and individuality within the Deaf community.
- 20% of proceeds from the jewelry’s sales will benefit Auditory Verbal UK, supporting therapy for deaf children to develop spoken language.
Gargi Agrawalla, a final-year Product Design and Technology student at Loughborough University in England, has won an international competition to design jewelry for use with cochlear implants and hearing aids and raise vital funds for a UK-based charity supporting deaf children.
Her ‘Junkyard Dog Flower’ design has now been made into jewelry by award-winning creators DeafMetal and is being sold to help raise money for the charity Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK).
Gargi explains, “I’m thrilled to have won the competition with my design which was inspired by my personal journey navigating from hearing aids to cochlear implants throughout my childhood into young adulthood and celebrates the raw, layered nature of identity, resilience, and beauty.”
Gargi was diagnosed as profoundly deaf as a baby and wore hearing aids until she received cochlear implants at age 12. Her design features her hand-sketched illustration of a flower, UV printed on white leather.
The design can be worn with either a cochlear implant or hearing aid and includes a matching coil ‘hat’ design. “I am passionate about promoting accessibility and inclusive design through my work and I wanted it to be vibrant and resilient, just like the deaf community,” Gargi says. “Flowers reflect growth, transformation, and individuality, much like every hearing loss journey. This design empowers assistive devices as symbols of pride and style.”
The competition was a joint venture between DeafMetal and AVUK to celebrate hearing technology that offers access to sound for deaf children and adults. It offered budding designers the opportunity to create unique jewelry that can be worn as part of hearing technology like cochlear implants and hearing aids.
Entrants were encouraged to use their own personality and style to inspire their designs just as judge Tasha Ghouri had done in the most recent season of BBC’s dance competition show “Strictly Come Dancing,” where she adorned her cochlear implants with gems and jewelry to tie in with her glamorous costumes.
DeafMetal creates award-winning jewelry innovations for hearing device users and was founded by a fashion designer who started wearing hearing aids in 2018. AVUK delivers Auditory Verbal therapy to deaf babies and children, helping them process the sound they receive from hearing technology, like hearing aids and cochlear implants, and supporting them to develop their spoken language so they can learn to talk like their hearing friends.
Joining Tasha Ghouri on the judging panel was AVUK CEO Anita Grover, who is also a cochlear implant user, and CEO of DeafMetal Jenni Ahtiainen.
Gargi’s winning design is one of two which are available now on the DeafMetal website, and 20% of the sales proceeds will go to AVUK to support more babies and children across the UK.
Featured image: The jewelry design can be worn with either a cochlear implant or hearing aid and includes a matching coil ‘hat’ design. Image: Loughborough University
