At Design Truth, we are built for opportunity.
Design Truth is collaborating with Mira Showers as they look for their next 12-month industrial design intern.
Mira is part of the Kohler Co family. A global company working in 52 countries and with 40.000 employees.
The industrial design team has been around for over 55 years and has been awarded 40+ International design awards for their work in redefining showering.
Through an online competition, we are offering a 12-month paid internship with Mira Showers, multiple cash prizes and the platform to share your work with the wider design community.
Make sure to use the hashtag #DesignTruthXMira when sharing your competition entry on the socials.
MIRA
-
Alba Bayona
Associate Director of Design Studio UK @ Mira Showers
“Mira has been a pioneering brand for over 100 years. We want to see how our entries extract the brand essence of Mira & embed those values into a beautiful design.”
-
Martino Passalacqua
Senior Industrial Designer @ Mira Showers
“Start by understanding the market. It is really important to understand the consumer’s needs & how you can address them with your design.”
-
Elise Parker
Industrial Design Intern @ Mira Showers
“You should definitely apply and go for it! I have learned so much - take in as much information as you can & soak up as much experience as you can because it is incredibly valuable.”
THE BRIEF.
Mira is looking for entries from the next generation of designers to rethink one of the products we use the most daily: the water bottle.
Mira would like you to design a physical product, that:
- Is not just a styling exercise but responds to tangible user needs.
- Considers manufacturability.
- Takes sustainability into account.
- Reflects the Mira’s brand visual design language.
The concepts will be judged by the Mira Showers Design Team. The criteria used will be: creativity, originality, output quality, differentiation, problem-solving, design sensibility, sustainability, manufacturability and brand awareness.
The ID team will award extra points to the concepts that reflect the most Mira’s Design DNA.
For further insight, answers to frequently asked questions can be found below.
Make sure to use the hashtag #DesignTruthXMira when sharing your competition entry on the socials.
Alternatively you can contact hello@designtruth.co.uk for any questions.
BRIEF
DETAIL
FAQs
Am I eligible for the Mira Showers design internship?
This year, the job is open to all second-year students enrolled with a UK-based university (BSc/BA Industrial Design, Product Design or equivalent) who are looking for their 12-month design placement.
The internship will commence September 2025 and will end in September 2026.
The salary for the internship is £20,000 gross. The internship will be a combination of in-office and hybrid working.
You will work on real live projects on a range of categories across our three brands Mira Showers, Rada and Kohler UK. This will provide the opportunity to understand the product design and development process, and how these build into the wider multi-functional product development process.
What is the timeline?
- The competition closes on the 27th February
- A number of semi-finalists will be selected and invited to send a short one-minute video describing their ideas. 3rd March.
- A number of finalists will be selected and invited over to Cheltenham for an interview (travelling expenses will be covered) 10th March.
This process is to be managed by Kohler Mira Showers directly and not Design Truth.
How do I apply to the competition?
If you are interested, please submit your CV, Portfolio and project design submission. Limit each file to 5MB max. There is a button at multiple parts of this landing page which provides a direct link for submission.
Students that do not submit an entry to the brief will not be considered for this position.
- Please pick a persona and scenario for your water bottle. Some non-exhaustive examples of persona are commuter, traveller, athlete, hiker, and office worker…)
- Once you have picked your persona and scenario, please identify what are the top three needs and base your concept around them.
- Include one add-on with your product (the add-on could answer one of the top 3 needs you have identified). This could be for example a feature to transport the bottle, store it, drink from it and so on...
We would like you to design a physical product, that:
- Is not just a styling exercise but responds to tangible user needs.
- Considers manufacturability.
- Takes sustainability into account.
- Reflects the Mira’s brand visual design language.
What do I need to submit? (A3 landscape format)
- Opportunity board: describe your idea, background and insights. Give us an idea of the problem you want to solve and how you want to tackle the brief. This can be done via storyboarding, sketching, and photos. What’s the problem you want to solve? How does this answer the brief? How is this different from existing products on the market?
- Ideation board: show us your design process and how you got to the final design. On this board, we are very interested to see your design-thinking process and how you can come up with a concept proposal and create iterations. This can be communicated via sketches (digital or non), and sketch models. What we are interested to see here is how you got to the final design and why.
- Hero board: This is the board that is selling your product idea. Show us the best views of your products, show how the user interacts with it, how the concept lives in the environment it is designed for and so on. This can be done via CAD renderings, photorealistic sketches or a mix of the two.
What prizes are on offer?
- 1st place: 12 months paid internship at Mira Showers. Your work will be featured on both Design Truth’s & Mira’s socials, as well as a free ticket to a Design Truth event.
- 2nd place: 1 Year Visune Lite Annual Subscription (worth £270) + £500 cash prize. Your work will be featured on both Design Truth’s & Mira’s socials, as well as a free ticket to a Design Truth event.
- 3rd place : £500 cash prize as a Design Truth honorable mention. Your work will be featured on both Design Truth’s & Mira’s socials, as well as a free ticket to a Design Truth event.
You can check out Visune’s keyshot resources here: https://visune.io
Make sure to share your entry using the hashtag #DesignTruthXMira.
Intellectual Property (IP)
Mira Showers will not own any of the IPs produced by the students. The students will keep the IP of their work and will be able to post it on social media and include it in their portfolio
Diversity Statement
As an organisation, Mira is committed to diversity and inclusion to drive our business results and create a better future every day for our diverse associates, consumers, partners, and global communities. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment.