Set to celebrate design excellence for not only the designers of interiors, but also the products that go in them, the SBID Awards now includes the newly launched SBID Product Design Awards, alongside the firmly-established SBID International Design Awards, with 17 diverse interior categories to enter in each programme. By representing all aspects of the interior design industry on an inclusive and international stage, the SBID Awards offers excellent exposure for designs, provides unique networking opportunities, and drives professional standards across the industry.
The deadline to enter is fast approaching with just over a week to go until the SBID Awards officially closes for 2020! Haven’t yet completed your entry, or are still considering why you should be entering the Awards this year? With design talent hailing from almost 50 countries worldwide, a record number of entries received year on year and a staggering 225,000 unique public votes, the Awards program is proud to celebrate the industry’s finest products and interior designs worldwide.
But if that's not quite enough and you still need more reasons to enter this year's SBID Awards, we're sharing the top 5 reasons to submit your entry before it's too late!
The Awards programme provides the perfect platform for showing the world who you are and showcasing your designs to an international audience, with features on the SBID Awards website and social media pages offering invaluable exposure for your brand and your projects! Not only can it give your own marketing a digital boost, but success in the programme presents a whole host of great PR opportunities to take advantage of!
The SBID Awards three-tier judging procedure ensures that only the best projects reach the next level! All entries are assessed by a technical panel of experts and a judging panel of high-profile figures in the creative industry to ensure each project is considered fairly and independently for its technical content and creative achievement, regardless of the budget! The final tier is the online public vote, receiving 225,000 unique votes – it's a great way to show off your best work!
Winning only has value if you earned it! Many competitions reel entrants in before hitting them with hidden costs in order to progress. Unlike them, not every SBID Awards entry is awarded a prize and there are no hidden fees, so entrants can't just buy their way to the top! There is just one Overall Winner and 17 Category Winners.
Achieving a GOLD Standard Awards Trust Mark for ethics and transparency, our T&Cs are transparent so you’ll never be asked to pay for extras. All information is on the website so it’s clear from the start what is involved. This means you can enter with the confidence that only the most talented will go all the way (not the entrants with the deepest pockets!).
The SBID Awards welcome entries from all backgrounds and budgets by keeping entry costs low! SBID Accredited members also receive exclusive entry discounts. This year, the Awards introduced new residential design categories differentiated by price point and property type, so the size or scale of your projects or practice is not a barrier to success! We know it’s the combination of small and large organisations that enriches the interior design industry - and that’s why the SBID Awards strive to celebrate the real depth and breadth of the profession.
The SBID Awards have grown in reach and reputation around the world since its launch in 2009, receiving entries from almost 50 countries worldwide. Entering the Awards presents an opportunity to become part of our international design community and connect with new audiences on a global scale at our annual Awards ceremony and networking events.
Even if you don’t clinch the coveted ‘Winner’ trophy, just being shortlisted for an award can still bring your business substantial benefits. Click here to discover the essential ways that awards can enhance your business!
The SBID Awards programme is designed to recognise, reward and celebrate the profession of interior design. If you’re an interior designer or product manufacturer, click here to find out more. Entries are open until 5pm BST on Friday 14 August.
Achieving industry recognition through prestigious honours like awards can be extremely beneficial for business. Not only can it generate awareness, increase brand exposure and of course, boost employee morale in a celebration of their hard work and success, awards are a great way to differentiate your brand, product or service from the competition! Independent acknowledgement of a company’s skills, value or competence within your sector also offers additional reassurances and credibility for potential clients and customers.
Even if you don’t clinch the coveted ‘Winner’ trophy on the night, just being shortlisted for an award can still bring your business substantial benefits. With this in mind, we’re sharing 5 essential ways that awards can enhance your business!
Put your brand in the spotlight! Association with relevant, industry-specific awards that add value to your brand offering can raise your business profile and provide a host of marketing and PR opportunities, so the chance to publicise, and ultimately capitalise, on your achievements within an award programme (whether a winner or a finalist) should not be overlooked! Utilising the promotion of your involvement before, during and after the ceremony through your marketing channels is a cost-effective way to increase brand awareness, share your company’s success and become a real marketing asset. And that doesn’t even include the additional exposure you would gain from the event organiser!
Awards are designed to endorse a company’s calibre of skill and success in a particular field, making them a key indicator of trust-worthiness. Entering and winning an award therefore demonstrates to your customers that your business is operating at the highest level within your profession, acting as a powerful selling point for potential prospects (or perhaps reinforcing their reasons for doing business with you in the first place!).
As a result, this can develop brand loyalty and improve client retention, as customers are often inclined to stay with businesses who are succeeding at what they do – as well as give them more excuses to tell their friends about you. And we all know how valuable word of mouth is as an effective marketing tool!
Using the awards branding on your website and in your marketing materials is another way you’ll be able to showcase these credentials to your target audience.
Partaking in awards is a public way of acknowledging the hard work and achievements of your employees, giving your team members an additional sense of appreciation, purpose and motivation in their work, as well as a stronger desire and confidence to continue to perform for your company. Attending the awards ceremony also offers a great chance to reward your staff by celebrating together as a team – who doesn’t love a chance to get dressed up for a fancy three-course meal and rub shoulders with top tier professionals in your industry?
Achieving an award also validates your employees work as a direct contributor to wider company success which can also generate company pride, increase work satisfaction and can play a positive role in future recruitment too by enticing new talent who want to work for successful, award-winning companies.
Serving as an excellent platform to wine and dine with the best of the best within your profession, award ceremonies provide the perfect opportunity to network with key players in your industry so you can make new industry connections, bond with potential business partners, reach new customers, and build better relationships with your peers. Winning an award goes one step further in recognising the value and expertise you bring to your sector in front of this captive audience, meaning your peers will look more favourably on your business and you will gain a deeper level of credibility and respect within your industry as a whole.
Most awards judging panels consist of distinguished industry experts, so entering them also presents a unique opportunity to put your business in front of specialist stakeholders, industry-leaders and influential experts in your field.
Whether you are a small or large company, awards offer the ability to stand side-by-side and compete against some of the biggest names in your professional pool, allowing you to take stock of your achievements in comparison to your peers and benchmark your work against the industry – this will help to see how you measure up against your competitors and refine your business goals and aspirations.
And of course, if you’re successful in becoming an award-winning business, it is a surefire way to differentiate your brand and stand out from the competition with that all-important, industry-recognised seal of approval, giving you an esteemed third-party endorsement from an independent body.
While entering awards can bring a host of promotional benefits for your brand, enhance industry positioning, and increase credibility - it's important to know which awards you should be entering! So before jumping in with both feet, do your research!
Are they a credible organisation? Do they have industry recognition? Do they really understand and represent your industry sector? And finally, do the previous winners embody what you want to be known for? Why win a vanity trophy when you could collect a prize that really resonates in your industry!
Look out for hidden fees in the application process! Some Awards charge successful entrants extra fees for exposure - some even require the winner to pay for their own award! Attending the ceremony can be a caveat of ‘winning’ too. If this is the case, the awards are likely to be given to the highest bidder so you know it's not really about outstanding achievement, excellence or creative merit...
The SBID Awards programme is designed to recognise, reward and celebrate the profession of interior design from the interior designer’s projects and the products they specify, to the specialist contractors that install the final fit out.
If you’re a designer, product manufacturer or contractor, click here to find out more.
SBID Accredited members also receive exclusive entry discounts.
Ana Azevedo, founder of SBID Accredited Partner, Kassavello shares her insight into the interior design industry as a supplier of high-end brands and bespoke furniture solutions to interior designers.
What is your current job?
I head up Kassavello’s London office and manage sales and customer relations with particular focus on the interior design community. I founded Kassavello with my business partner Renata in 2015. We offer a selection of curated products from elite brands and bespoke furniture to interior designers, architects and end clients.
What is your background and how did you get into interior design?
My previous career was in business management within the hospitality sector where I managed a number of high-profile restaurants and bars. I had always had a passion for design but having exposure to such a variety of prestigious venues ignited my interest and I enrolled in a series of interior design courses at the University of Arts in London. Moving from client-side within hospitality to client-management within design was a hugely rewarding transition where I was able to transfer and combine old and new skills whilst working in a creative industry that is constantly evolving and never fails to inspire me.
Describe an average day in your job role..
My business partner Renata is based in Portugal, the location of our key suppliers and manufacturers and it’s critical that we stay aligned at all times so that there’s a consistent and seamless workflow. Every day begins with a video conference call where we run through current priorities, project status and actions required. I then follow up client-side, more often than not this is with a UK based interior designer, on any decisions required for bespoke furniture production such as discussing design detailing or scheduled fabric deliveries. Whilst we often receive DWG drawings from our clients, we always produce detailed technical drawings for approval working closely with a team of dedicated craftspeople in Portugal who have decades of experience and can often propose sleek solutions to practical design problems. Most days also bring new enquiries which I follow up on often whilst juggling the logistics of overseeing white glove installation on site. I also dedicate time each week to keep abreast of industry trends and developments too as its critical that designers can trust us to be one step ahead of the game when it comes to innovation and evolution within the luxury design space.
Which elements of your profession do you enjoy the most and/or find the most rewarding?
We frequently use different artisans to deliver individual elements for one piece of furniture – for example an exquisite brass handle crafted by an exemplary metal artisan combined with beautifully inlaid veneer from our expert team of joiners. Facilitating a designer’s unique vision through our trusted network of craftspeople is always rewarding when you see the vision from conceptual drawings through to final installation.
Is there anything new you are excited to be working on?
We’re currently working on a proposal for a significant number of bespoke items for a project in Malta in collaboration with one of our favourite designers. She has a passion for bold design and colour and is always looking to push the boundaries in terms of shape and form which is thrilling for us and the team of experts that we work with. There’s nothing like a creative challenge!
What do you find the most challenging aspects of your job?
Managing expectation versus budget is a familiar challenge to everyone in the industry and our sector is no exception. Our clients consistently want to deliver exceptional pieces but sometimes you have to set expectations and find the best solution in terms of materials or a design tweak that offer a very good result and one that also comes in on budget!
The logistics of delivery can also be very challenging. Whilst we work with outstanding white glove delivery teams, we can often be faced with logistical issues and dependencies on a 3rd party in terms of access or red tape, particularly in central London. Always surmountable but always a challenge!
What do you wish you knew before working in the field?
How much attention to detail interior designers have. This is certainly not a criticism, in fact far from it - we work with some exceptional designers who can sometimes request a change of design equivalent to a few millimetres. When we first developed the business, we had no idea how particular clients could be but with the benefit of experience behind us we are now able to guide and collaborate on those decisions, knowing when they will and when they won’t matter to the stability or aesthetics of a piece.
What would you tell your younger self if you had the chance?
Follow your gut feeling… if a project or a client does not feel right, it probably isn’t
What has been your favourite project to work on?
We were very fortunate to be given the opportunity to work on an exceptional project in Kuwait with an end client who had no budget constraints and an appetite for luxurious finishes and styling. Having the opportunity to work alongside her and her family to furnish their beautiful villa was a design dream and allowed us to select hand-crafted pieces that are rarely accessible but are truly timeless heirloom items.
Conversely, we recently worked on a project in Chelsea with high client expectations but challenging budget constraints. We spent a lot of time with the designer developing solutions and alternatives that did not detract from the exceptional result that was required and ultimately delivered – hugely rewarding.
What do you think is the biggest problem the interior design industry faces?
The access to information for end clients via social media has become overwhelming. It can make the decision- making process extremely drawn out when the client suddenly spots something new they love, or when they have seen a cheap copy of an atelier piece of furniture and fail to appreciate the value in the time and craftsmanship that is put into bespoke pieces. It’s something that the industry is working hard to address and a conversation that we are always happy to be a part of. With close and long-standing relationships with some of Europe’s finest artisans we absolutely appreciate the skill and dedication that goes into every piece of bespoke furniture.
Who do you admire the most in the industry and why?
In terms of furniture design, Kelly Wearstler is a personal favourite of mine. Her curation of vintage, contemporary and architectural forms within her pieces is truly exceptional. She is always innovative, inspirational and evolutionary – outstanding traits in a designer that consistently pushes the boundaries and is a leading industry narrator. Architecturally it has to be Joseph Dirand, his eye for volume and space underpinned by classical proportion is unsurpassed – a true master of his craft.
Want to become SBID Accredited? Click here for more information.
SBID Accredited Partner, Mark Taylor, managing director of Mark Taylor Design reveals his journey in the design profession, and shares the advice he would give his younger self before he began his career as a designer.
I’m the Managing Director of Mark Taylor Design, a British furniture design business, responsible for designing, manufacturing and fitting kitchens, bathrooms, studies, bedrooms, staircases and more.
The company was set up 20 years ago, because I was trained in both furniture production and management and was a keen designer. I also completed an MBA and wanted to apply all these skills to build a business doing something I loved in this industry.
I will get in by 8.30am most days, contact clients throughout the day to ensure everybody is happy. I have a meeting most days with my teams on various projects. I might be designing or sketching, liaising with suppliers, costing projects, sourcing materials, working with my interior design team and, depending on the day, there’s usually a site visit or two.
Winning really exciting projects at one end, and seeing great work installed and happy clients at the other. I get a real sense of achievement out of a problem cleverly solved.
We are about to work on a swimming pool and gym construction which is exciting, as it’s a ‘start from scratch’ project, in a beautiful setting, with a client I’ve worked with a great deal in the past. This is the next phase of turning his home into his perfect home, which is always very satisfying.
Finding enough hours!
Don’t be afraid to be bold in your designs. Use interesting materials and play with shape and colour. As I’ve become more experienced, I’ve learnt that the braver designs are the ones that the client remembers and enjoys most – they have a talking point and so do we! When I was starting out, I always worried that my simple designs wouldn’t be noticed. I’ve learnt that the opposite is true; simpler is often bolder and more stunning than complicated. Finally, having conviction in your ideas.
Working alongside Interior Design, Charlotte Jackson of Nice Brew Design, we fitted out a very large basement extension, with a bar, bowling alley, wine cellar and entertaining space. It was a great project because the space was large but dark. The lighting and ambience of every element of this space was so crucial to it feeling comfortable and exciting. We worked with different textures, materials and even screens to bring the space to life.
I’m not sure. It feels healthy to us at the moment. The world is quite fragile though with Covid-19, and I guess it might be about whether people have the funds to afford interior design. Hopefully, the economic recovery will be relatively swift and people will continue to see the value of investing in their homes.
Small artisan craftsmen are still my greatest source of admiration because of the enormous love they have for what they produce, and for the techniques and skills that are so precious to us. Those who are teaching younger manufacturers and designers these traditional skills, and who are adapting them to today’s market are fantastic examples of how our industry will stay relevant and desirable.
Drinking water no longer has to sacrifice design to fill a purpose. That’s what a variety of top interior designers are discovering after installing the perfect drinking water solutions into their own homes.
The kitchen tap industry has seen a boom in growth over the past five years, fuelling competition between brands as they innovate and redesign their best-selling products. Interior designers can now find taps to match seamlessly with all the latest kitchen trends in a range of styles, finishes and functionalities - including the ultimate all-in-one tap.
A clear favourite for a variety of top interior designers, the Zip HydroTap is capable of delivering up to five water options - filtered boiling, chilled and sparkling plus unfiltered hot and cold water - from a single tap and under-counter command centre. With seven tap designs and seven on-trend finishes to choose from, Zip’s premium drinking water systems lead the way in both style and functionality to offer the perfect solution for all environments.
Known for bringing modern interior creativity to hotels and commercial spaces all over the world, Jason and Jenny Rose MacLean of Studio MacLean were thrilled when they found the Zip HydroTap after struggling to find an all-in-one tap that would be striking enough for their own kitchen refurbishment.
“We’ve come across all-in-one taps through work before, but the design has never really been eye-catching enough,” Jason said. “That’s until we came across Zip’s All-in-One Arc. We couldn’t believe we’d found a tap that could give us filtered boiling, chilled and sparkling water as well as unfiltered hot and cold. It meant we could keep our kitchen uncluttered with no need for a kettle or any bottled water - which we are very keen to avoid anyway from an environmental perspective.”
Owner of interior design company Studio Fortnum, Rebecca Wakefield has been gradually renovating her own home to create a light, airy and calming living space after purchasing it in a dilapidated state in 2016. After spotting that the number one luxury, top of the wish list item in her clients homes is a boiling water tap, Rebecca started to consider how much she’d benefit from one, as long as it could fit in well with her green and brass colour scheme.
“Zip had been on my radar for a while, so I was thrilled to discover they offer taps in brushed gold,” Rebecca said. “But I know from experience that style can often outweigh performance and there’s nothing worse than something that looks great but just doesn’t work. Luckily Zip is a trusted brand so we chose the Zip HydroTap Celsius Arc in brushed gold.”
Much more than just a boiling water tap, Rebecca loves the additional benefit of having unfiltered hot and cold water alongside filtered boiling: “Because it is my regular kitchen tap as well as my boiling water tap, the kitchen has retained a clean, minimal feel. My counter tops aren’t cluttered and we have no use for a slow-to-boil kettle. It really has transformed daily life for us.”
Discover more about how a Zip HydroTap could change the way you design on their website: specify.zipwater.co.uk
About the Author
SBID Accredited Industry Partner, Zip Water is a provider of award-winning technology that transforms water instantly with filtered, chilled, boiling and sparkling drinking water solutions for home and business.
If you'd like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more.
On the look out for new product inspirations in lockdown? This month we're sharing the latest product news from SBID's trusted network of Accredited Partners. Featuring a new collection of customisable wallcoverings, sustainable kitchen tap solutions for contemporary interiors, and a unique designer range of luxury cordless lamps inspired by Earth!
Graham & Brown launches customisable wall mural collection
New for 2020, Graham & Brown launches a collection of bespoke digital wall murals, printed to fit in a range of paper finishes. Spanning archive artworks and trend-led contemporary designs, the collection offers a striking feature wall solution for a variety of interior styles. The charming Balloon Race design is ideal for nurseries, bringing walls to life with the spectacle of well-heeled ladies and gentlemen dressed in their finery up high. For a more subtle approach, the Ombre wall mural is available in muted Anthracite, Blue, and Duck Egg. Using an easy to use online made-to-measure tool, each mural can be customised by simply specifying dimensions and selecting a crop.
The range of Graham & Brown paper substrates allow the murals to be personalised even further; the premium Fabric Effect paper has a woven textured finish making it perfect for masking existing wall imperfections, whilst the Mica Fibrous paper has a luxurious lustre which shimmers in the light. Each mural design is partnered with four complementary paint shades, selected by the in-house Graham & Brown colour experts to make decorating all four walls a breeze.
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Zip Water’s stunning HydroTaps transform homes
Found in the homes of interior designers’ Rebecca Wakefield of Studio Fortnum and Jason MacLean of Studio MacLean, Zip Water’s stunning HydroTaps are proving themselves to be style pieces as well as being indispensable kitchen appliances.
Rebecca’s HydroTap Celsius Arc combines filtered boiling water with unfiltered hot and cold for family convenience. And thanks to Zip’s range of finishes, her kitchen of sage green units and brass accents could be perfectly complemented by a brushed gold HydroTap. Equally, Jason’s super modern, bright yellow kitchen benefited from a brushed chrome HydroTap All-in-One Arc, this time with an extraordinary five functions. Not only can he and his family enjoy the tap as a regular kitchen tap with unfiltered hot and cold water, but this is combined with filtered boiling, chilled and sparkling water. With only one under-counter unit, and no need for a kettle or unsustainable bottled water, this is a truly space-saving product.
Alexander Joseph releases its latest designer collection
The world’s only luxury cordless lamp maker, Alexander Joseph released its latest range of lamps with the Earth collection, consisting of 14 different designs. Eva Baron of Eva Baron Design created the collection focusing on high-end residential interiors and furniture design. Her cutting-edge pieces embrace contemporary design, taking inspiration from futuristic building forms and haute couture fashion design.
The collection highlights some of the more unusual materials our planet provides with includes rough, smooth, warm, cold and layered textures, just as you would expect from the raw materials. Rather than use well-trodden path of polished materials, the team researched and tested ways in which metals, ceramics and silks could be distressed or altered to produce unusual patinas. Many of the lamps in the range are a result of unique techniques using hand tools created specifically for this collection.
Kings of Chelsea introduces the Roberto Cavalli Antigua Dining Table
The Roberto Cavalli Antigua Dining Table is just one of the exclusive furniture pieces that have now become available online at Kings of Chelsea for the first time. This stunning retro-styled Italian design piece is composed of abstracted brass rods with a shiny gold finish and a smoked bevelled glass tabletop, complete with the classic Cavalli logo. This statement table is perfect for a modern dining room setting, and as a sociable centre point for dinner parties and gatherings. You can now browse many of Kings of Chelsea's stunning showroom pieces online at discounted prices, while unable to visit the showroom in person.
Brand New Brassware by Roca
The new Escuadra collection from Roca offers a contemporary design, providing a modern alternative to the traditional basin mixer. Brassware is a key addition to any bathroom space, not simply for its aesthetic value, but also for innovative functionality; Roca continues to invest in the latest technology to align its ranges with the latest water-saving and eco-friendly initiatives.
If you'd like to feature your product news here, get in touch to find out more.
To commemorate 100 years of Bentley motor cars, SBID Accredited Industry Partner, Alexander Joseph in collaboration with DMark Concepts produced a one of a kind cordless lamp, named Mulliner. The design of this exclusive premium lamp not only pays homage to the luxurious specification of Bentley’s prestigious interiors and their brand-new convertible model, but does so sustainably.
Made completely by hand in their UK workshops, the Nickel lamp body has been cushioned, replicating the decadent seating synonymous with the Mulliner specification. In collaboration with Bentley, the lampshade has been crafted in Vegan leather, then hand stitched in the iconic quilted diamond shape. The piece took 5 months to complete and represents approximately 600 hours of meticulous labour! The lamp also benefits from cutting edge, patent-pending battery technology and software, which delivers 3-4 weeks of use on a single charge. After the briefest of visits to the Geneva Motor Show, Mulliner will be offered for sale privately via a small number of Interior Designers with an appropriate client profile.
Sharing his insight to the key factors driving industry change and how makers should respond, we interviewed Mark Robinson, Managing Director of Alexander Joseph to find out more about what went in to produce this Bentley-inspired, vegan lamp!
What social trends are driving change and how do your designs respond to them?
Consumer desire for ethically made and sustainable products forces makers to think hard about their products, often this means using new techniques or materials where traditional methods are now considered morally redundant. This in turn can affect the way a designer must think about a piece to ensure whatever the item happens to be can be made cost effectively.
Manufacturers ignore customer demands for ethical and sustainable products at their peril. It’s no longer good enough to “carry on as normal”, customers have started to vote with their feet, or wallets! Brands should see this as an opportunity to inspire new design and perhaps techniques, rather than a begrudging obligation.
A great example of a brand adapting to what the market wants is one of our most iconic British brands, Bentley. The company recently introduced a range of vegan leathers for their vehicles.
Can you talk us through the manufacturing process. How did you take the initial design concept to achieve the final end product?
Alexander Joseph partnered with DMark Concepts to make this piece. The two businesses have worked together on other projects and discussed how to produce something unique. DMark who are also based in Dorset are best known for handmaking body parts for vintage cars you simply can’t buy.
The concept for the Mulliner lamp came following a meeting between the two companies for an unrelated piece destined for a luxury yacht. During a conversation about Bentley, Mark Robinson mentioned their drive to become more environmentally aware, this in turn led to a conversation about new Bentley models including the upcoming Mulliner. Within 10 minutes the group at the meeting had sketched out the initial concept.
In rudimentary terms, the piece can be broken down into three parts. The body, the shade and the technology. We decided to make the body from copper, primarily because it is an easier material to roll than most. It also lends itself to being highly polished as well as being the perfect plating surface.
A single sheet of copper was hand rolled, then using a laser light, the sheet was painstakingly worked over a wheel to create the pillowing synonymous with Bentley Mulliner models. This section of the lamp took almost 300 hours to create.
The technology for this piece also had to be reworked onto a new platform as the internal space wouldn’t allow for our existing electronics layout. This in turn meant we had to redesign the charging system for the lamp!
How was the choice of materials important? Why did you choose to use Vegan leather?
Our initial idea was to make our first carbon neutral product, just to see if it could be done. Using Vegan leather for the lampshade was an obvious and easy choice. We approached Bentley about the project, and they were able to give us all the information we needed to see the piece to conclusion.
The black vegan leather we eventually selected was then sent to a car upholstery specialist who formerly worked for another car brand, Aston Martin. He was able to hand stitch the material, replicating the Mulliner specification in Bentley cars.
Your products are manufactured by hand in the UK. How do you see ‘Made in Britain’ trend evolving after Brexit?
We don’t fear what Brexit means to ‘Made in Britain’. In fact, we see it as another opportunity. As a country we may struggle to compete with other regions for lower priced high-volume products, but nobody does quality engineered and hand-made products better than Britain. We see no reason why this wouldn’t continue. If anything, it could be argued that an overt independence only enhances the cache of Made in Britain.
How do you go about sourcing your materials locally? Why do you do this?
We ensure every component used in our lamps come from UK suppliers. When we launched our business one of our proud claims was that our lamps were 100% British - and this is still the case today. We audit all our suppliers to ensure everything they supply to us has been sourced and made in the UK. Wherever possible we buy from local suppliers with around 80% of our raw material coming from firms within a 20-mile radius of our workshops.
Sourcing specialist components and materials from UK suppliers is challenging, the research is time consuming, as is the administration of controlling the supply chain, but we think it is worth it.
All our pieces have a serial number. We record every component that goes into a customer lamp, so in the future if the piece is damaged, we can replace a part without the cost of replacing the whole lamp. As a result, we also know what date we received every component and which batch it came from. We even record ancillary information such as the depth of plating, or the colour density of glass.
Questions answered by Mark Robinson, Managing Director of Alexander Joseph
SBID Accredited Industry Partner, RAK Ceramics will be exhibiting its exclusive designer collections, RAK-Cloud and RAK-Variant at the upcoming KBB Exhibition in Birmingham from 1 to 4 March. With the prestigious product designers set to attend, we wanted to find out more about the collections and what inspired them. Read our interview with Giuseppe Maurizio Scutellà, Daniel Debiasi and Federico Sandri to discover what makes their designs so unique.
Giuseppe Maurizio Scutellà was born in Alcamo, Sicily. His collaboration with RAK Ceramics begins with RAK-Cloud, a project that continues the creative thinking of the Italian designer and that integrates perfectly with his other projects such as the collection of lamps “Pirce” by Artemide (Good_Design 2008, Red Dot Award 2009, IF Design Award 2010) and the “Metropolis” collection of crystal and ceramic tables by Tonelli Design.
What inspired the collections? RAK-Cloud, born from my love for sculpture, soft and organic and sensual lines, and marries with a speech that I have been carrying on for some time, in fact I designed a tap for Gessi, which is called Equilibrio and is inspired by the stones and nature. Identical process for my perhaps most famous project, in the world of light, with the Pirce suspension lamp, made for Artemide. While RAK-Petit is a specific request addressed to the architectural world, the need to combine washbasins in confined spaces, which do not renounce glamour, and the elegance of solutions that can be developed in larger spaces.
What was the design process? All my projects are born on paper. I like to explore different solutions quickly and instinctively. On paper I already imagine the finished volumes, identify the solutions that convince me most, 3D model the whole collection in order to have a coherent overall picture. I submit it for technical verification, from which I receive the feedback that I transfer to the collection. Then we proceed to 1:1 scale prototypes and if everything works, it goes to final production.
What is unique with these designs? There is a word in English, which does not have an exact equivalent in Italian, and it is understatement, which for me means creating a proposal, made of elegant but not screamed details, to give rise to unobtrusive, timeless proposals. A careful search for volumes and proportions, combined with cuts in the surfaces to create dynamism and at the same time sensuality, in an environment such as the bathroom increasingly inserted in a modern and contemporary living context, completes the number of projects.
Daniel Debiasi and Federico Sandri founded their own design studio in 2010 and work within various fields of design, ranging from objects to spaces. Multiple experiments and the relationship between manufacture and craftsmanship form the basis for a much broader thinking. They have created work for Antoniolupi, Lema, Ligne Roset, Normann Copenha-gen, Offecct, Rosenthal, Stelton, Villeroy & Boch among others. Together with Rak Ceramics, Daniel Debiasi and Federico Sandri present the project RAK-Variant (2019).
What inspired the collections?
RAK-Variant, like many of our projects, was born on the basis of a specific material. In this case, ceramics, a material, whose production must combine two supposedly distant worlds: the serial production, precise and standardized; but also a need for manual sensitivity, which cannot be ignored.
What was the design process?
Designing is never a linear path and very often, in one single project we have to process, bring order and translate all the different thoughts that flow together into actual products. In the specific case of RAK-Variant, we set ourselves the goal of achieving a formal synthesis that would allow the collection’s various elements to be easily integrated into different types of interior. In order to achieve this, we played around with the balance between the expressiveness of a product and its attribute of being consciously silent.
At the same time, we focused on some details that convey the quality while enhancing the intrinsic beauty of the ceramic material itself. The result is a collection of 25 basins in different shapes and dimensional variations that offer multiple installation possibilities.
What’s unique with these designs?
The top views of the washbasins, with a geometric and controlled matrix, interact with the very thin edges evoking, in this way, the delicacy of the material while creating a new timeless three-dimensionality, well suited to any interior context.
The Society of British and International Interior Design’s inaugural SBID Product Design Awards has been honoured with the Awards Trust Mark at the Gold level, its highest degree of accreditation. This achievement is especially meaningful as only a handful of UK programmes such as The Diana Award for young humanitarians, the Investors in People awards, and SBID’s International Design Awards have been granted this recognition for their ethics and transparency.
The newly launched SBID Product Design Awards celebrate the finest design, innovation and functionality for products within the residential and commercial interior design sectors. Open until 13 March for entries from around the globe, the competition invites product, industrial and interior designers, as well as manufacturers and suppliers, to propose original products realised in the last two years across 17 categories.
The Awards Trust Mark certification was established by the Independent Awards Standards Council, a not-for-profit organisation made up of stakeholders in the awards industry. Created with the aim of raising standards and perceptions of trust in awards competitions, the accreditation encourages a focus on ethics with all aspects scrutinized including criteria, scoring, feedback, transparency and judging.
Chris Robinson, co-founder of the Independent Awards Standards Council, explains why the SBID Product Design Awards is a deserved holder of the Gold Standard level: “The SBID Product Design Awards is an exemplary demonstration of how awards should be operated with attention to every detail, from the transparency of the scoring system, to the quality of websites, the clarity of the entering process, and to the quality of customer service.”
Winners are chosen via a three-part process. A technical judging panel evaluates entries’ professional merit and determines the finalists to be announced 9 April. From this selection, an extraordinary jury of the foremost industry experts will decide 70% of the winners’ scores, with the remaining 30% the result of an online public vote that will be live until 30 April.
Recently appointed as vice-president of SBID, Chris Godfrey knows more than a thing or two about design excellence. The award-winning British architect and designer added another feather to his cap when he was named SBID’s 2019 Master of Design, an honour bestowed on a practitioner who has contributed greatly to the interior design industry. “SBID’s Product Design Awards support the visionary ideas, quality craftsmanship and integrity of materials that characterise the best in product design,” says Godfrey. “It’s appropriate that we should celebrate innovative products as essential parts of an interior designer’s toolkit for creating holistically-considered spaces.”
With winners announced at the glamorous Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London during an awards ceremony on Friday, 5 June 2020, entrants into the very first SBID Product Design Awards can be confident in knowing that the ethics of the judging process is as valued as the originality of their creations.
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The Society of British and International Interior Design (SBID) announces the launch of its Product Design Awards celebrating the finest design, innovation and functionality for products within the residential and commercial interior design sectors.
Now open for entries from around the globe, the competition invites product, industrial and interior designers, as well as manufacturers and suppliers, to propose original products realised in the last two years across 17 categories: Accessories; Bathroom Product; Brassware; Cabinetry & Joinery; Fabric & Textiles; Furniture – Contract; Furniture – Residential; Heating & Cooling; Ironmongery & Metalwork; Kitchen Product; Leisure & Wellbeing; Lighting; Outdoor; Sanitaryware; Sound & Vision; and Surfaces & Finishes.
Entries close on Friday, 13 March 2020, with winners chosen via a three-part process. A technical judging panel evaluates entries’ professional merit and determines the finalists to be announced 9 April. From this selection, a jury representing a broad range of design skills and connections will decide 70% of the winners’ scores, with the remaining 30% the result of an online public vote that will be live until 30 April.
Truly extraordinary industry experts will lend their insights and experience to the SBID Product Awards’ judging panel, including Karim Rashid, president, Karim Rashid Inc; Vasiliki Petrou, group ceo and executive vice president, Unilever Prestige; Dr. Jeff Ning, president, Wanda Hotels and Resorts; Can Tufekcioglu, principal interior designer, Arcadis; Trevor Cotterell, managing director, Areen; Kar‑Hwa Ho, head of interior architecture, Zaha Hadid Architects; Gary Clark, principal, regional leader of science and technology, HOK London Studio; Henry Reeve, director of interior design, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG); Heinz Richardson, principal, Jestico + Whiles Architects and Designers; Letitia Fitzgibbon, head of interior design, Harrods Interior Design; Herbert Lui, partner, Dexter Moren Associates; and Dr. Vanja Garaj, head of design, Department of Design, Brunel University London.
In the glamorous setting of Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London, the awards ceremony on Friday, 5 June 2020 will be an exceptional opportunity to celebrate the very best in global product design while mingling with top-tier industry leaders from across the world.
To find out more about the SBID Product Design Awards, visit www.sbidawards.com
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