A student from St Francis’ College has won the Letchworth Young Designer Competition, a contest launched as part of the first phase of a town-wide consultation asking people about day-to-day life in the garden city.

Charlotte Bexfield won the competition – run by the Letchworth Heritage Foundation – amid strong competition from students in schools across the town.

The students were tasked with designing, creating or curating an image which captures the spirit of a modern garden city, which would then be used as part of the branding for the consultation.

Charlotte’s design featured a beautifully-crafted leaf cut design – incorporating the vision of Ebenezer Howard’s three magnet planning of Letchworth – to pull together town and country to create a future garden city, while also referencing the historic and cultural foundations of the town.

About her win, Charlotte quipped: “You wouldn’t be-leaf how much fun I had with it!”

The winning prize for the competition is £200, which Charlotte and St Francis’ director of art Tabitha Wilson have decided will be invested in a community arts workshop for young people in Letchworth which will be advertised after Easter. Charlotte will also get the opportunity to showcase her work to residents as part of the Heritage Foundation’s engagement programme.

A spokesman for the school told the Comet: “We were pleased to celebrate with Charlotte, who has won the Letchworth Garden City Young Designers Award.

“Her winning design wowed the judging panel. Charlotte’s design cleverly pulled on the historic, cultural foundations of the town, with a nod towards the future using her clean cut lines and graphic finish. Congratulations Charlotte.”

David Ames, executive director of stewardship & development for the Foundation, said: “We wanted to use the competition to engage with students on the topic of Letchworth and to get them to reflect on what a garden city as a concept means to them. We’re very happy with the results and the quality of entries we received overall, and would like to congratulate Charlotte on her winning entry.”

To find out more about the ongoing consultation on the future of Letchworth, visit www.letchworth.com/consultation.