As Dean Vande Griend watched Bastian Bux enter a magical world through a book in “The Neverending Story,” a problem arose. The images on the television become pixilated as the DVD skipped in the player.

Instead of getting annoyed like most people, however, Vande Griend found inspiration and turned the mishap into a creative piece of furniture.

Vande Griend, junior in art and design, used the pixilated images from the movie to create a table that won first place in creativity at the International Woodworking Fair in Atlanta.

“It really wasn’t the movie that inspired me,” Vande Griend said. “The DVD skipped. You know how the images look really digital, with the little blocks and squares, I just had the idea of having the table look deleted from one end to the next.”

After seeing the warped images, Vande Griend wondered if he would be able to pull off his unique idea for a design class. With his fellow classmates, he turned in his application to the show after his professor urged them to do so.

“It was a class assignment,” said Brian Laskowski, ISU alumnus and classmate of Vande Griend. “He brought up the opportunity to apply to the fair and he urged the advanced level students to do it because not many of us have experience in the show. It was a good opportunity for us being in school. It wasn’t required, but it was strongly encouraged.”

Both of Laskowski’s designs were also selected to compete in Atlanta, as well. He said he was disappointed he wasn’t able to make the show but had Vande Griend show his works for him.

“I was ecstatic,” Laskowski said. “To have two pieces selected, I was pretty floored. I didn’t believe it at first. I thought it might be a joke.”

To make it to the show, all applicants had to send in their applications with a picture of the design work and a description, Vande Griend said. From there, only a few people were chosen to have their works shown in Atlanta. After sending the work in, each piece was judged.

Merely getting into the competition is a big deal, said Chris Martin, associate professor of art and design. He said the students were up against a lot.

“This is the first time I’ve had a student win an award at [the exhibition],” Martin said. “It’s a really big honor just to get in to it. It’s basically universities from around the country. They’re competing against the top design schools in the school and in the world, for that matter.”

At the show, Vande Griend’s work was a success, he said. Not only did he win first place in creativity with his table, but his other work, a sofa table, won second place in its category.

Martin said he never doubted Vande Griend’s work. He said his work was very mature and underspoken, but most of all elegant.

“I was really confident with his pieces,” Martin said. “They are some of the best pieces I have ever seen come out of my area.”

Making the design for his digital table wasn’t very difficult, Vande Griend said. He simply ripped one-inch strips from the table and glued them together elsewhere. He did that more toward the top to create the illusion of the table being deleted.

Vande Griend said there isn’t a certain mindset in building his works.

“It’s just building,” he said. “It’s creating and problem solving. It’s figuring out how to go about putting the piece together.”

Although Vande Griend isn’t yet sure of what his future holds, he said he wants it to involve making functional works of art.

“I hope to continue making furniture,” he said. “I hope to start selling some things to finance making more.”