A BUDDING designer from Virginia Water has won an award for his innovative new helmet that improves cyclist safety.

Richard Price won in the Red Dot Best of the Best category for his Optic helmet, which combines front and rear cameras with 360-degree proximity and collision detection.

The cutting-edge device can also show navigation and journey statistics, putting information directly in front of cyclists so they don't have to take their eyes off the road.

Richard, who also studied at LVS Ascot, travelled to a gala ceremony in Singapore to accept the accolade.

He said: "I put in a lot of time and effort into making it work and now that has all paid off."

The 25-year-old was inspired to create the helmet through his countless near-miss experiences as a cyclist on the road.

"Numerous times I have had to slam on the brakes cycling into work," he explained.

"I decided to come up with a solution when I could find nothing satisfactory on the Internet.

"I wanted to help combat the 20,000 incidents involving cyclists on the road every year."

The young designer's passion for improving the world is what drew him to the industry in the first place.

He said: "I love designing things that benefit people and make a difference to their lives. That's what sets design apart from art."

Richard hopes to take his concept to market within two years, though he admits this may be optimistic.

"There are a lot of challenges ahead," he said.

"The next stage is getting a proper prototype that we can go and test."

The Red Dot awards are renowned in the professional world for identifying groundbreaking design concepts and prototypes.