EIGHT hand crafted artists' books, a bar stool and two chairs and a washing machine are among the projects which have earned their designers a place in the finals of the Graduate Designer Awards, to be presented in RTE tomorrow.

Graduates from five colleges, north and south of the Border, are competing for the overall prize of Graduate Designer of the Year.

The awards, which have been running since 1984, are presented by the Society of Designers in Ireland and the seven finalists were selected from over 560 final year students in 12 colleges around Ireland.

The seven category winners are Dermot Hegarty, a graduate of the University of Ulster, Belfast, who won the craft design section; Michelle Byrne of DIT Mountjoy Square, the exhibition and interior design winner; Elaine Curtis, a graduate of Limerick RTC school of art and design, who won the fashion design (knitwear) category and Ben Jones of the University of Ulster, Belfast, category winner in the film and TV graphic design section.

Emma Byrne of Limerick RTC was the graphic design winner; David O'Malley, a graduate of Carlow RTC, won the product design category and Ben Burke, a graduate of Dun Laoghaire College of Art & Design, was the category winner in the Theatre, Film and TV (production design).

Michael Grogan, RTE's head of design and president of the SDI, said that the finalists had "the potential to become designers of a high standard".