Design

Cream of the crop

This year’s Design Guild Mark winners are revealed

Innovation of materials and creativity remained at the forefront of British design with 23 entries receiving the coveted Design Guild Mark this year.

The Design Guild Mark is awarded by The Furniture Makers’ Company, the City of London livery company and charity for the furnishing industry, to drive excellence and raise the profile of British design and innovation. It recognises the highest standards in the design of furnishings in volume production across three categories: Furniture, 2D Design and Lighting Design. The award is open to designers working in Britain and British designers working abroad.

Each category has its own jury of renowned design experts who assess submissions against criteria including: Are the materials appropriate? Are they from sustainable sources? Does the piece/collection show new thinking? Does it solve a problem?

Three designs, Fourfold, Swell and Hotaru, received the Jonathan Hindle Prize for their outstanding qualities. Visit: www.furnituremakers.org.uk

TEXTILES, WALLCOVERINGS, SURFACES, CARPETS AND FLOORCOVERINGS

All Tomorrow’s Futures textured linen blend, designed by Charlotte Raffo and Alexis Snell for The Monkey Puzzle Tree. Upholstery and soft furnishings textile created in collaboration with linocut artist Alexis Snell, a specially commissioned crepe textured weave in a linen cotton blend interacts with the screen print to give an irregular hand-made feel to the design.

Quest, designed by Jane Marks-Yewdall for Camira. Using recycled marine waste in partnership with the Sequal Initiative, it has a casually elegant aesthetic and evocative colour palette. Swell, designed by Jones & Partners for The Collective Agency. Swell is a lightweight, horizontally seamless acoustic wall-cladding solution with a unique height of 2.7m, made from eco-material EchoPanel. Offering acoustic and environmental properties, Swell is reminiscent of a wave.

Northward Bound carpet tiles, designed by the Milliken Design Team for Milliken Industrials. Kerry Cottam’s design is a high-performance, carbon-neutral, luxurious carpet tile collection that uses fewer raw materials, thus reducing embodied carbon.

LIGHTING

Hotaru, designed by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby for Ozeki Lantern Company. In collaboration with twentytwentyone, Barber and Osgerby have created an elegant range of lighting drawing on the heritage of Japanese lantern-making.

Melina, designed by Yasuyuki Sakurai and Risa Sano for Hand & Eye Studio. A collection of cluster pendant lights and wall/ceiling lights. The lamp with a mouth-blown clear or opal glass shade in matt etched finish has a dimpled base that acts as a focal point on the otherwise smooth surface. The dimple becomes thinner closer to the light source, making it shine brighter. Joseph Collection, designed by Michael Young for EOQ. The soft Asian silhouette belies the reassuring strength of an object crafted from a solid block of aluminium. Each piece is extruded into shape, then softened with CNC cutting, before being milled on a lathe to open up the core and allow the light to diffuse through the fins.

Evedal, designed by Aaron Probyn for Ikea. The objective was to design a lighting collection that the end-user would have a true emotional connection with and therefore want to keep for a lifetime and pass on to a future generation. Evedal is crafted from brass, marble, mouth-blown glass and solid timber.

Full Stop, designed by Derek Treadwell for Innermost. Full Stop is a small bulkhead fitting with the impression of a light source cast in solid glass. Care has been taken to, as far as possible, design replaceable, single material components that are easy to disassemble and recyclable at end of life. 

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FURNITURE

Smalto Low Table, designed by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby for Knoll. A series of low tables made from enamel steel with an accent on modernity, the design process was an exercise in purity and simplicity.

Heritage, designed by Dylan Freeth for Ercol. Lucian Ercolani’s 333 chair is the starting point for a range of Windsor seating including chair, armchair, love seat and bar stool.

Buddy, designed by Chris Fowler for Bisley. Designed for sit/stand workstations, Buddy is fixed to the underside of the desktop and so moves vertically with the working height, ensuring the user can quickly access their belongings. Your Move, designed by Jon Christie for Flip the Script Furniture. Inspired by Nathaniel Cooke’s classic Howard Staunton chess set, each table requires nine hours of hand turning.

Fourfold, designed by Barry Jenkins for Ocee International. The overall frame geometry, leg shape and extruded beam all contribute towards a product that is simple and safe to use and compact when stored.

Bowater Collection – Cable Shop Stool (kit), designed by Jan Hendzel for Jan Hendzel Studio. Part of the multi-award-winning Bowater collection, the Cable Shop Stool is now available as a complete make-at-home kit.

Kaya, designed by Morgan Studio for Morgan. Simplicity is key, using only the upholstery needed and multiple frame sections rather than a single, larger component. Eva, designed by Phidias Leonida for Nurus. Designed for working from home, Eva is easy to pack up and move while providing a stable work surface.

The Somerset Four Poster and The Tetbury, designed by Garry Smith for The Cornish Bed Company. The four-poster bedstead suggests elegance at its finest, with sweeping, curved brass top rails for that extra layer of class. There are no bolts or welds on the Somerset (pictured). Tetbury’s fortifying design and shapely frame maintain its timeless enchantments. The Davenport Bureau, designed by David Irwin for Another Country. The Davenport is designed to provide a separation between work and home life, serving as a dedicated space for work that can be easily tidied away at the end of the day.

Ports, designed by Tom Lloyd and Luke Pearson for Bene. Ports is a multifunctional hub, like a modern high-performance port. Office zones that were once separate are merged into a multifunctional space that facilitates collaboration while also supporting focused individual work. Sepal and Saranac, designed by Mark Gabbertas for Gloster Furniture. The Sepal tables take inspiration from water lilies, while the Saranac upholstery uses an approach that seduces the user rather than shouts at them.