Design Awards 2012 - the finalists

We're delighted to reveal the finalists in our 8th annual furniture and homeware Design Awards. The winner has been selected by our very glamorous judge, Christian Rasmussen of Denmark's Fritz Hansen (who was in New Zealand recently), and will be revealed in our June/July issue, which is on newsstands from Monday June 4. All the photographs are by Toaki Okano, styled by Alicia Menzies and Juliette Wanty. 

Here are the finalists, in no particular order. First, London-based New Zealand designer Jason Whiteley's 'Studio' chairs for Resident, made from blockboard wood sheets (created from the waste of other industrial timber processes).

Next, David Moreland's 'Pendant 45' light, made of spun aluminium and spun copper. 

Emma Hayes designed the 'River' print and fashioned it into silk throws, cushions and pillowcases for her firm MM Collections. 

London-based Phil Cuttance's 'Faceture' vases are made from water-based resin in a polypropylene mould, using a machine Phil made himself. Also in this shot is Design Awards 2012 finalist Holly Beals' 'Gallons' table. 

Nathaniel Cheshire's 'Oud' lamp for Resident is a homage to JJP Oud's 1928 Piano lamp, as well as incorporating references to Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion and OMA's CCTV Tower. 

Two-time Design Awards winner Jamie McLellan's 'Spar' floor lamp for Resident was designed as a contemporary alternative to Achille Castiglioni's 'Arco' light in the way it cantilevers illumination into the centre of a space.

Tim Webber's 'Y' stools are elegant combinations of wood and powder-coated, primary-coloured steel. 

Our lineup of Design Awards finalists appears to grow more impressive every year, a vote of confidence not only in the increasing appreciation for local design here in New Zealand, but the ingenuity of our designers in creating export-ready objects. Our congratulations to all the designers whose work appears in our June/July Design Awards issue. We look forward to revealing the winner to you on June 4.

Designer Jamie McLellan's short film

We're just about to call for entries to our annual furniture and homeware Design Awards, which means this short web film is timely. It shows two-time Design Awards winner Jamie McLellan discussing a range of his new works, including the 'Flyover' table that won our Design Awards 2010. Enjoy. The Design Awards call for entries is in our next issue, published on April 2, and heading to the printer today. Back to work!


Resident | Jamie McLellan from Special Problems on Vimeo.

A little tease

A little tease - we're announcing the winner of our furniture Design Awards at a function in Auckland on Thursday night (the full results will be published in our June/July issue, on shelves Monday June 6). The image below by Toaki Okano shows a few (but not all) of our finalists: the 'Odin' chair by Jamie McLellan (last year's Design Awards winner with his 'Flyover' table), the 'Fiord' table by Sam Haughton/IMO, a 'Weld' vase by Phil Cuttance (on the table), David Trubridge's 'Sola' light, and 'A2' stools by Sam Haughton/IMO.



Not pictured: the 'Isla' chair and ottoman by Alex Webster for Coast, the 'Adjutant' table by Nathan Goldsworthy, 'Band' shelves by David Moreland, and the 'Ruin' side table by Mark Seeney. You can check in here on our blog on Thursday night to see who the winner turns out to be.

Thanks again to our Design Awards partner, Daniel Le Brun, who made the awards possible and will be giving the finalists some of their fine product on Thursday night.

Design Awards 2010

Congratulations to Jamie McLellan, the winner of our annual Design Awards for the second year running. Jamie's 'Flyover' table was originally commissioned for the New Zealand Room at last years Venice art biennale, and is now available through Simon James Design's 'Resident' label.

The table was made using powder-coated steel that flat-packs for each shipping. Our design awards judges, designer Humphrey Ikin and art dealer Michael Lett, praised its sleek form, elegant construction, bold colour, and its applicability to both commercial and domestic settings.

Design Awards 2010 - Behind the Scenes

Our June/July issue - which will be on newsstands on June 7 - features our annual furniture Design Awards. We were delighted with the individuality and all-round pizzazz of this year's finalists, and can't wait to show them to you in the magazine (where you'll also be able to find out who the Design Awards 2010 winner is).

For this year's Design Awards shoot, we had all the finalist pieces shipped to Auckland and photographed at the Union Fish Company building in the Britomart area, where the rough concrete floors and exposed brick walls made a fine backdrop for the very polished entries. Our stylists Tanya Wong and Jessica Allen worked with photographer Toaki Okano and his assistant Lorna to photograph the pieces.

Here's Toaki behind the camera, with Jess and Lorna setting up a group shot of the finalists (Tanya took these pics). In this shot, you can see Jamie McLellan's yellow 'Flyover' table, Andy Irving's 'Matchstick' stools (at left), Nathan Goldsworthy's 'Historian' bookshelves, Stephanie Donald's white 'Tangent' coffee table, and Sam Lennon's red 'Inverted Cube' coffee table:

And here's Toaki again, this time photographing Tim Wigmore's 'Pil' light:

The chair in the image below is the 'Starling' by Cameron Foggo:

Here's Toaki in a lighter moment:

And some more of the finalist objects, waiting for their close-ups. The pink 'Hostess' table at right is by Katy Wallace, and is made of pieces of junk-shop furniture. Beside it, the blue 'Table/Cloth' table is by Juliette Wanty.

The Design Awards 2010 winner was chosen by designer Humphrey Ikin and Michael Lett (of the eponymous Auckland gallery). Remember to watch out for full award coverage in our June/July issue - we just sent the final pages to the printer yesterday, so it won't be long until it hits the shelves.

Jamie McLellan is our Design Awards winner

Those of you who have the magazine will already know this, but Auckland-based designer Jamie McLellan is the winner of our Design Awards 2009 for his 'Twig' coat stand. Here's the spread featuring him and his work from the April/May issue of HOME New Zealand:



The coat stand was praised by our visiting judge Edward Barber as an elegant combination of form and function. He also noted that coat stands need to look good without coats on them, which this one really does.

Jamie already has a pretty impressive design career: he trained at Victoria University of Wellington and has worked for Tom Dixon in London. He developed the 'Twig' coat stand for Fletcher Systems and is currently completing a commission to design furniture and lighting for a Japanese property in the ski town of Niseko, as well as windsurfing equipment for the firm Neil Pryde.

Jamie was present at our awards night last week in Wellington which was held in the Lombard Street showroom of our sponsor, Staple Furniture + Design. It was a great night with a generous crowd - so congratulations to Jamie and thanks to the folk at Staple for their support, too.

Design Awards 2009 finalists

We happily present the finalists in our Design Awards 2009 - our picks of the best New Zealand furniture and homeware of the past year.

The 'Spiral Islands' light at the top of the image is by David Trubridge.

The 'Twig' coat stand is by Jamie McLellan for Fletcher Systems.

The black 'Knight' light is by David Moreland.

Both the orange and black steel tables are by Nathan Goldsworthy of Conscious Design.

The wooden lamp base by Ben Pearce with shade by Martin Poppelwell were produced by Sandi Reefman for her company Esther Diamond.

The red 'Hawk' chair is by Simon James.

And because you can't really see the fabric design by Ngahuia Damerell (inspired, she says, by the architectural idiom of Te Papa), here's another image of it:

If you don't mind us saying so, we think it's quite an excellent line-up. Our next issue of the magazine contains all the info on the designs and the winners, and will be published on April 6. We're also planning a series of exhibitions of the finalists' designs at the following locations:

Wellington: At the showroom of our Design Awards sponsor, Staple Furniture + Design (cnr Bond and Lombard Streets) from April 2-9

Auckland: At Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, 13 Reeves Road, Pakuranga, from April 17-May 3

Gisborne: At Staple Furniture + Design, 38 Childers Street, from May 7-21.

We hope you can make it to see the objects while they're on display. We'll also be hosting a talk featuring the designers at Te Tuhi in conjunction with the exhibition there - we'll post details when we've finalised them.