Furniture Judges - Design Guild Mark - Get to know the judging panel

Simon Alderson

twentytwentyone

Simon Alderson co-founded twentytwentyone in 1996. The award-winning company is internationally respected for its carefully curated retail business. twentytwentyone has a dedicated commercial sales team working with architects and designers on progressive interiors projects. The company also produces a small collection of furniture and accessories and acts as exclusive UK agents for several international design collections.

Elliott Koehler

Layer Design

Elliott Koehler is a globally accomplished designer currently positioned as the Industrial Design Lead at the creative agency, LAYER. The Studio is a team of 20, led by Benjamin Hubert, and has worked with brands such as BMW, Nike and Samsung. The holistic design agency focusses on user experience and interaction design which is driven by human centred research. Elliott graduated from the top design school, College for Creative Studies, in Detroit MI, USA in 2010 and began his career with an internship at General Electric where he led the design of the Connected Home Division of CE Products. In 2015 Elliott became a Senior Industrial Designer at JPA Design before joining LAYER a year later. Elliott's focus as a designer is generating pieces that will define the way we work, live and communicate in the future, exploring the possibilities of A.I, smart wearables and the next generation of media devices.

Campbell Thompson

The Conran Shop

Campbell is Head of Furniture & Lighting for the Conran Shop. He graduated with a BSc in Product Design and since then has gained over 15 years’ experience in Home retailing working for various brands including Skandium, Harrods and Heals. Campbell joined the Conran Shop in 2016 and oversees the buying edit across furniture and lighting, working with brands on exclusive collaborations and developing Conran Shop own brand furniture and lighting with prominent UK and international designers.

Helen Berresford

ID:SR, Sheppard Robson's Interior Design group

Helen is Head of ID:SR, Sheppard Robson’s award-winning interior design group. She is a recognised industry leader and through her creative leadership ID:SR has developed an activity-driven design approach which puts people at the heart of the design process. Working with a range of occupiers that include media organisations (CH 4, ITV and the BBC), blue chips (KPMG, Deloitte, Barclays) and retail brands, she is helping to overturn the traditional concept of the office environment. Helen is passionate about design and aims to create spaces that enhance people’s ability to live, work, play and learn.

Jeremy Myerson

Royal College of Art

Jeremy Myerson is a design writer and academic. He is the Helen Hamlyn Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art, a Visiting Fellow in the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing at the University of Oxford, and Director of the WORKTECH Academy, a global knowledge network on the future of work. A former editor of DesignWeek, Creative Review and Would Architecture, he co-founded the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the RCA in 1999 and was its director for 16 years, helping to pioneer the practice of inclusive design. He is the author of many books, including biographies of furniture designers Gordon Russell and John Makepeace.

Terence Woodgate

Studio Woodgate

Terence Woodgate is an Industrial Designer specialising in furniture and lighting and in 2014, formed his own eponymous lighting company. He works from his studio in Mayfield, East Sussex, England. One of the UK’s most respected industrial designers, Woodgate has become known for a stripped-down, elegant modern approach to design with an obsessive attention to detail and manufacture, exemplified in products like the ethereal Surface Table designed with John Barnard for Established & Sons. He became a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in 2003 and has received numerous international design awards, including the Red Dot Best of the Best and the IF ecology award. His current client list includes Established & Sons, Punt Mobles, SCP, Concord Lighting, Case, Objekten, RVB and Habitat International. Examples of his work are held in the permanent collections of the Museu d’Arts Decoratives, Barcelona and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Joanna Biggs

GA Design

Joanna Biggs has worked in Hospitality Design for over 20 years and is currently a Director at GA Design in London. During this time Joanna has had the opportunity to work with some of the world’s leading 5* hotel brands delivering luxurious, unique and timeless designs. Widely applauded for their lateral approach to problem solving, GA believe strongly in supporting and reflecting a Client’s objectives through design.

Tom Pearce

Farrah & Pearce

Tom spent time working at some of London’s top design studios before co-founding Sebastian Conran Associates in 2009. He has since designed and developed hundreds of commercially successful products from concept through to consumer. His work is interdisciplinary with projects ranging from product and branding design to furniture, transport, lighting and sculpture. His products have been exhibited at both the Design Museum in London and the Design Museum in Ghent, and his work has received numerous international awards including multiple RedDot Design Awards, a Good Design Award, German Design Award and several Design Guild Marks. He has a unique sense of thoughtful design and creativity combined with extensive and varied experience, invaluable industry insight and complex technical knowledge.

What the judges say

A thoroughly enjoyable morning shared with a team of challenging and enthusiastic judges. We were presented with a diverse and interesting range of 2D submissions, demonstrating that imagination and commercial suitability can cohabit and create really useful, elegant and pleasing products.

— Professor Clare Johnson

Royal College of Art

It was wonderful to be part of the first year’s 2D judging panel and so exciting to see a variety of world-class British products presented. The winners of the prestigious mark are all highly deserving and set a benchmark for the years ahead.

— Fiona Knight

Studio Hopwood

With so many products coming to market, design can often be regarded as a time consuming inconvenience. The entries that really stood out were those where design and designers were integral to the process and the judges could follow the route from original concept through to final solution and production.

— Peter Thwaites

Rapture & Wright

The inaugural 2D judging took place this year. I wasn’t sure what to expect!
However, it soon became apparent that when design integrity is at the heart of any product development, quality and completeness of thought is expressed ensuring a well considered product suitable for market.

— Corinne Pringle

tp bennet

The enduring quality of good design demands careful consideration of materials, process and form. While the panel doesn’t agree on all submissions, the debate and final consensus ensures the pedigree for the Design Guild Mark is one of respected quality.

— Simon Alderson

twentytwentyone

It’s always a pleasure to be asked to join the judging panel for Design Guild Mark Award.
The 2018 entries were all of an exceptionally high standard, showing quality craftsmanship as expected, but also originality and some elegant problem solving design solutions.

— Joanna Biggs

GA Design

As a first time judge of the Guild Mark I was impressed by the quantity and quality of the submissions. I was also impressed by the diversity of the judging panel.

— Rodney Kinsman RDI

OMK Design

The standard in design, thinking and making of this year’s Design Guild Mark was not only hugely inspiring, but left me feeling proud of our British furniture industry. The critique of the submissions by the panel was tough, so the awards are well deserved and highlight that the level of ‘design excellence’ is getting higher each year.

— Tom Pearce

Farrah & Pearce

A wide spectrum of furniture items submitted this year which ranged from commercial to crafty but all of an exceptionally high standard and meeting our expectations. Innovation in commercial workplace was evident this year which was a pleasure to see.

— Pernille Stafford

Resonate Interiors

The judging process allows applicants to present and talk about submissions with the objects right in front of them, this allows all the production processes and details to be fully explained and demonstrated which makes judging a lot easier.

— Campbell Thompson

The Conran Shop

The designs were a pleasure to judge with the work presented being diverse in form and function. There were some exceptional designs, well considered and executed. Design for me is a mix of art & technology and we certainly experienced designs at both ends of the spectrum.

— Terence Woodgate

Studio Woodgate