Design Guild Mark are pleased to announce that IDEAS Ltd will be sponsoring the ‘Furniture category’ for the 2024 Design Guild Mark Awards.
Founded by Keith Lovelace in 2002, IDEAS is a leading authority in ergonomics and inclusive design for any commercial or public space including leisure, sports, hospitality, healthcare, and education.
Keith has always had the philosophy that everything should come under the term ‘Good Design’, meaning that a product has been designed in such a way that it is desirable, inclusive, sustainable, robust, innovative, functional, attractive, and repairable, to name a few – values which are shared by the Design Guild Mark and form the criteria by which each submission is judged.
These shared ideals make for the perfect relationship and means that the Design Guild Mark can continue celebrating the outstanding and world-leading designs of British designers that were designed for, and are manufactured by, an industrial design process.
Since its inception in 2008, the Design Guild Mark has grown to become one of the most influential and coveted design programmes. Its 3 categories (Furniture, Lighting, and Interior Design Elements) are open to designers working in the UK and British designers working abroad. Each submission is subsequently judged in person, with the designer present, by a carefully curated panel of judges, all of whom are at the top of their respective fields and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the evaluation process.
It is also unique in that it is not a competition with a ranking of entries, rather the award is given to all designs that the judges deem to be of the highest standards of originality, innovation, and quality.
The criteria to be met to establish if a design is deserving of a Mark includes:
Innovation – does the design demonstrate new and original thinking and problem solving/is it different/does it do something better?
Function - is the design fit for purpose/does it work well and intuitively/does it benefit the user and how?
Form – is the design aesthetically appealing and its appearance appropriate/is it made well/does it incorporate innovative manufacturing materials and processes?
Brand – does the design develop a brand’s position/does it provide a competitive advantage or edge in any way?
Environment – does the design demonstrate a responsibility to progressing sustainable and circular practices/is the product designed and made for longevity of appeal and use?
Sponsorship of The Design Guild Mark Awards therefore provides a fantastic opportunity to interact with a focussed target audience of world leaders in the field of design, including designers, brands, and their associated followers.
The Design Guild Mark judging panels for 2024 will be:
Furniture
Daniel Aram - ARAM
Joanna Biggs – Sherliker Biggs
Elliott Koehler – JPA Design
Lucy Kurrein – Lucy Kurrein
Jeremy Myerson – Professor Emeritus, RCA
Heather Naylor - B&B Italia
Tom Pearce – Farrah & Pearce
Luke Pearson – Pearson Lloyd
Campbell Thompson - The Conran Shop
Interior Design Elements
Linzi Coppick - Forme UK
Daniel Hopwood - Hopwood Design Studios
Clare Johnson - Professor Emeritus, RCA
Natasha Marshall - Natasha Marshall Interiors Ltd
Corinne Pringle - tp bennett
Emma Sewell – Wallace Sewell
Peter Thwaites - Rapture & Wright
Lighting Design
Simon Alderson – twentytwentyone
Gitta Gschwendtner - Gitta Gschwendtner
Risa Sano - Mensten
Simon Terry – Anglepoise
John Tree – Jasper Morrison
Sebastian Wrong – Established & Sons
Designers and companies have until 19th January 2024 for the final deadline. The application form can be downloaded from the Design Guild Mark website: https://www.designguildmark.org.uk/apply-now