The Prince Philip Designers Prize was instigated by our Patron, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, in 1959 and is organised annually by The Design Council.
The award is made to a British designer or design-team leader whose exemplary work has had an effect on the perception of design by the public, and on the status of designers in society.
A representative of the Society, along with those from other design organisations, sits on the panel of judges who meet at Buckingham Palace to determine the winner from an ever increasing shortlist of inspiring designers in all fields of activity. The nominations are submitted from various professional bodies.
Further details of the judges, nominations, past winners and the current holder of the of the prize can be seen on the Design Council website.
Prince Philip Designers Prize 2008
The Prince Philip Designers Prize 2008 was won by Prof. Max Fordham. The award was presented to Gentleman by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, CSD’s patron.
The Society nominated Richard Seymour and Dick Powell for the award, both of whom for the third time in the award scheme received commendations.
Nominations included:
Ian Callum RDI has made a prominent contribution to automotive design, first at Ford, where he worked on the Escort Cosworth, and later at TWR and Jaguar, where he is director of design. Here he has taken a classic marquee in a new and commercially successful direction with models such as the XK and the new XF.
Sir Jeremy Dixon and Professor Edward Jones are architects whose modernist work takes on board many elements of the classical tradition. Their work - including extensions to the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, the Royal Opera House and Somerset House, exemplifies some of the best ideas that have been current in UK architecture in the past 30 years.
Professor Max Fordham OBE FREng FCIBSE FRIBA is a pioneer in environmental design for buildings, his firm specialising in developing sustainable solutions for building surfaces such as heating water and electrical installations. Forty years after he set up his professional practice in environmental engineering, low energy and low carbon methods have never been in more demand, and sustainability is a driving design force.
Sam Hecht is regarded as one of the most thoughtful and rigorous product designers of his generation. Previously Head of Industrial Design at consultancy IDEO Europe, he co-founded Industrial Facility in 2002 and has brought his logical and modest design style to global corporations such as Epson and Whirlpool in addition to overseeing the utilitarian simplicity and elegance of Muji designs.
Betty Jackson CBE RDI is one of Britain's most respected fashion designers who has run her successful business for over 25 years whilst being an inspirational teacher at the Royal College of Art and an advocate of design education.
Amanda Levete is one of the UK's leading architects, whose agenda-setting Future Systems practice has been recognised worldwide for its ability to challenge traditional preconceptions of space. Levete has also turned her hand to products, interiors and furniture: her solos show earlier this year at Established & Sons contained pieces that push material and design to their limits while being functional and spatially innovative.
Mary Lewis formed brand identity Lewis Moberly with Robert Moberly in 1984, and the practice remains one of the UK's most outstanding design companies, with work such as Duchy Originals, Cafe Direct and St Pancras International to its name.
Richard Seymour and Dick Powell are one of the UK's most high-profile and successful design duos and have arguably done more than any of their peers to further the cause of good design. Their practice, Seymourpowell, set up in 1984, is a standard bearer for the design industry, having created successful products for an international client list including Samsung, Unilever, Tefal and Nokia.
Sir John Sorrell CBE and Lady Frances Sorrell have worked together for 30 years first in their design business, Newell and Sorrell and, since 1999, in their educational charity the Sorrell Foundation, which aims to inspire creativity in young people and works with thousands of school pupils every year.
Prince Philip Designers Prize 2007
The Prince Philip Designers Prize 2007 was won by David Gentleman FCSD, who was nominated for the prize by the Chartered Society of Designers (CSD).
The award was presented to Gentleman by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, CSD’s patron.
The other nominees for the 2007 prize were architect David Chipperfield, product designer Robin Levien, Apple’s head of design Jonathan Ive, furniture designer and Royal College of Art professor Ron Arad and fashion designer Shelley Fox.
David Gentleman is a British artist, engraver, lithographer, and designer.
He is best known for his stamp design (the most memorable being the commemorative stamps of the Battle of Britain in 1960) and for the wall panels on Charing Cross Tube Station.
His work in the graphics field has varied from book covers for Penguin Press to posters for the National Trust and illustration in a wide variety of books. Gentleman studied at the St Albans School of Art and the Royal College of Art, under John Nash among others
On his nomination by CSD, Mr Gentleman commented: “I need hardly say how honoured and delighted I am by the CSD's nomination, and how appreciative of the efforts of those who have suggested it”.
The was made at a ceremony on the 25th October in Newcastle and it is the first time that the ceremony has been held outside London.
