Enterprising designers at Colchester Sixth Form College have caught the eye of the judges with their award-winning products.

Eighteen-year-olds Alex Brown and Natalie Kent have won joint first prize in a contest organised by the Chelmsford Engineering Festival.

Natalie designed a cardboard chair which interested experts at furniture store Ikea and she is planning to talk to other furniture firms about getting it into production.

David Watts, head of computer and technology at the North Hill college said: "The chair is a relaxing chair and supports the spine and is a very unique design."

Alex came up with his Moto V mountain bike saddle with built in mud-guard to protect cyclists from mud slowing them down in races.

Brightlingsea firm F-Hot Finz made the saddle out of carbon fibre and Kevlar with Alex.

He said: "I designed the seat with more comfort for the modern mountain bike with a mud-guard built in."

He said the mud guard would help cyclists in their quest to win down hill races.

He hopes to study product design at Brunel University.

The pair created their work for A-level design projects and have already won prizes from the Rotary Club and have entered the Regional Young Engineers of the Year contest.

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