Design Droplets recently attended the award ceremony for the inaugural Belle Georg Jensen Design Awards, a competition that brings together the Danish luxury goods manufacturer and Australia’s leading luxury lifestyle magazine in the search for the nation’s best design talent.
Held at MCM House in Sydney’s Waterloo, the event saw emerging and established designers coming together to celebrate achievements in the fields of interior architecture and product design. It was also a great opportunity to gauge the pulse of the Australian design industry and get a feel for where Australian product design in particular might be headed.
Entrance to Awards
Entrants in the product design category responded to an open brief that sought a piece of furniture, lighting, textile or a home accessory design that is ready to enter production or has been on sale for less that 18 months. There were some wonderfully well-resolved entries with winner Adam Goodrum’s Stitch chair, Nicholls+Scott’s Shell stool and Helen Kontouris’ Outline lamp coming easily to mind, yet it seemed a shame that all five finalists for the product design award were, in fact, furniture pieces. A little more variety certainly wouldn’t have gone astray.
Helen Kontouris Outline Lamp, Adam Goodrum Stitch Chair and Nicholls+Scott Shell Stool
The grand prize, the Georg Jensen Design Award, had a closed brief requiring designers develop an original design for a desk accessory to form part of a new range of lifestyle office accessories for Georg Jensen’s 2011 range. Entries included Galvin Harris’ Rings desk containers, Brian Steendyk’s Nantoo office collection and the prize-winning Flo pen by Sydney’s Brad Stebbing.
Flo pen by Brad Stebbing
Talking to Stebbing after the award ceremony, he spoke of the fantastic opportunity the competition presented for emerging Australian designers given that the greatest challenge he faces is developing an international audience for his products. For his efforts, Stebbing can now look forward to an all-expenses paid trip to meet Georg Jensen’s design director in Copenhagen, Denmark and the opportunity to have his work included in a future Georg Jensen collection.
Ann Sulivan (MD of Georg Jensen Australia) speaking with Georg Jensen Design Award winner Brad Stebbing
Speaking with Neale Whitaker, editor-in-chief of Belle, and Ann Sulivan, managing director of Georg Jensen Australia, both remarked on the incredibly strong field of well over 100 entries and, perhaps unsurprisingly given the economic difficulties of the last 18 months, the renewed vigour in the Australian product design scene and the hunger for success they’ve seen in young designers.
Considering the success of this year’s competition, the continuing partnership of Belle and Goerge Jensen for the 2010 competition should come as no surprise. The awards represent a rare opportunity for Australian designers to gain both local and international recognition and, more broadly, it’s existence demonstrates the support for, and vibrancy of the local design industry. We’ll be looking forward to covering next year’s competition and hope to see some Design Droplets readers on the finalist board!
Georg Jensen display
