Sometimes when I read about these competitions, I wonder how the in-house designers feel. Nokia seems to be really big on design contests since this is the third one I've read about recently. Over the last few months, a number of Industrial Design MA students from London's CSM College of Art and Design worked on concepts for a 4G / 5G device. While there was a cash prize, the real prize was the summer internship, offering the winner an opportunity to work with Nokia's design team.

I don't know how the design process is like in a mobile device company, do they get to dream or are they stuck on what can actually be produced economically? It's a fine line and why should the students get all the fun? On the other end of the spectrum, they can be seen as injecting new blood/life/ideas into existing design teams. It's never too bad to have someone question everything others have taken for granted.

With that said, the winner of the competition was the Nokia 111 by Daniel Meyer. It didn't really stand out to me, the only obvious difference was that the phone pretty much had an included stand since it could fold to stand on it's own. And would you really want to display photos all day long in the office draining the battery?

The winning design however is quite a looker. Aside from the usual gimmicks including the 'smell-o-vision' ability that earned it the name, Nokia Scentsory, the phone itself looks great. With the white face, it looks like somthing even Apple could have designed or been proud of.

View some of the top designs here. And if you happen to be in London, check out the designs in person. The Future of Mobile Design exhibition is running from 13 to 16 June at the Air Gallery, Dover Street, London, and is open daily from 10am until 6pm. Entry is free.