The Furniture Makers’ Company has named Simon Pengelly as the winner of the Jonathan Hindle Prize for Excellence for his innovative Unnia chair range.
Created in 2015 by Design Guild Mark founder Jonathan Hindle, the prize is presented to the most outstanding design awarded a Design Guild Mark that year. One of 19 products awarded a Design Guild Mark in 2016, the Unnia range was designed for Spanish manufacturer Inclass. It is a collection of versatile stacking chairs that allows the user to customise their own design by mixing and combining different colour and material variations of the seat, back and frame.
Jonathan Hindle and Clerkenwell Design Week show director William Knight presented the award – which includes a £1000 cash prize – to Simon during the Design Guild Mark award ceremony, held on 26th May at the Goldsmiths’ Centre, London.
The Design Guild Mark is judged by a panel of leading industry professionals from the commercial, furniture, hospitality, media or retail industry.
On winning the award, Simon comments: “Being recognised as the most outstanding design of those selected for a 2016 Design Guild Mark is a huge honour and something we can give back to our client in recognition for their unwavering commitment to us and the work involved in developing such a complex and involved product.”
Jonathan says: “I would like to offer my congratulations to Simon for winning this prize. The Design Guild Mark was founded to recognise excellence in the design of furniture for volume production. To be awarded a Design Guild Mark is a great honour in itself, but to be recognised as having produced the most outstanding design for the year by such a distinguished panel of judges is something to be extremely proud of.”
DGM chairman Alex Gifford adds: “Once again, this year’s entries for the Design Guild Mark were of an incredibly high standard, making it very difficult to choose a single recipient of the prize. After much deliberation, the judges agreed that the Unnia range was an exceptionally good seating solution as well as a fantastic use of material.”
