The end of a year comes an opportunity for reflection and 2019 has seen the Design Guild Mark take several leaps forward.
However, no man – or Mark – is an island so we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to our continued success, including our judges, PR and media partners, exhibition partners and venue hosts.
To shine a light on what we’ve achieved this year, we’ve compiled a short retrospective of 2019.
The start of the year saw us strengthen our position in the Textiles, Wall Coverings, Surfaces, Carpets and Floor Coverings sphere as Daniel Hopwood, one of the category’s judges, gave an insightful talk at the Surface Design Show, discussing interior design trends and their relevance to the surface industry.
Make sure you put Wednesday 12 February 2020 in your calendar as Natasha Marshall, another one of the category’s expert panel, will be speaking at next year’s event. She will be talking about sustainability and sourcing and recycling materials close to home. Stay tuned for more on this in the coming months.
With March came our favourite time of year – the judging days. The judging days provide our respected juries the opportunity to scrutinise the submitted designs and interrogate – in a friendly fashion – the minds behind the pieces in their quest to assess design excellence.
Every year we try and capitalise on having such an abundance of design know-how all in one room by producing films with the applicants and judges. The overview video with our Textiles, Wall Coverings, Surfaces, Carpets and Floor Coverings judges was a highlight.
In May we were thrilled to announce that 22 designs from the Furniture and Textiles, Wall Coverings, Surfaces, Carpets and Floor Coverings categories were awarded the Design Guild Mark during our ceremony at Allermuir’s showroom as part of Clerkenwell Design Week.
The event was teeming with professionals from the UK design community, all celebrating the contribution and extraordinary work of this year’s winners. A special shout out to Jonathan Hindle Prize winners DGM 212 Ori Guest Bed, designed by Catherine Aitken, and DGM 233 Igneous, designed by Jemma Ooi and Nathan Philipott.
September saw us collaborate once again with major design exhibition 100% Design, exploring the significance and eminence of British design in the global landscape in a special seminar.
In doing so, we called upon Jonathan Hindle, founder of the Design Guild Mark and group managing director EMEA of KI Europe, to chair a panel and tackle the subject ‘British design: who rates it?’.
The panel was made up of Helen Berresford, head of ID:SR; Mark Gabbertas, founder of Gabbertas Studio; and Tom Lloyd, co-founder and director of PearsonLloyd.
The illuminating 50-minute discussion is available to watch in its entirety in the video below.
Finally, no retrospective of 2019 would be complete without the exciting news that we launched a third category for 2020, Lighting Design.
The new category, which has its own panel of judges, will reward excellence in the design of table lights, floor lamps, pendants, ceiling and wall lights, outdoor lighting and technical/system lighting.
Final entries for all three categories must be with us by Thursday 23 January 2020.
Until then, seasons greetings.
