Classic Design Awards

2008 Innovation Award (sponsored by Harrods)

Winner Lacie Little Disk
Designed by Sam Hecht for Industrial Facility
Price From £60
Contact 020 7253 3234, www.lacie.com/uk

Industrial Facility, set up in 2002, is a partnership between Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, with Ippei Matsumoto as senior designer. Their clever, thoughtful and visually understated products already sell in Muji, and have been exhibited at the British Council, the Design Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 2007, they won the prestigious German International Forum (iF) Gold Award (for design) for the third consecutive time, for their work with Epson.

Their winning product, the LaCie Little Disk, backs up/stores information from your computer's hard drive in an appealing little box the size of a cigarette packet. It will hold up to 250 GB of information, which is plenty for the average user, and comes in two sizes, 1.8 inches (storage potential: 60 GB), and 2.5 inches (80, 120, 160 or 250 GB). Other devices on the market that perform similar tasks are bulky and require attached transformers and cable, making them awkward to use and difficult to carry around. Little Disk eliminates the need for a transformer, has an ingenious pull-out cable, and its disk drive (internal moving part) has been redesigned to conform to its trim shape. Technical innovations make it easy to use and to adapt to your own needs and computer; we particularly liked its speed in retrieving information.

Externally, this invaluable tool for the digital age is made of a hard, smooth, durable plastic (ABS), and has a surface with no painted coatings or visible external switches or sockets. Its appearance, say the designers, was informed by powder compacts and lipstick cases.

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2008 Furniture Award

Winner Alba Armoire
Designed by Russell Pinch
Price From £2,695
Contact 020 7501 9262, www.pinchdesign.com/

The furniture designer Russell Pinch trained at Ravensbourne College of Design before working as Sir Terence Conran's design assistant and then senior designer with the Conran Design Group, where he developed a diverse range of products for The Conran Shop and Conran restaurants. He founded his own design company, Pinch, in 2004, for furniture, product and interior design.

His award-winning piece of furniture, the Alba Armoire, is made for Pinch by an old established British firm of woodworkers. “I am passionate about keeping our wonderful cabinetmaking skills alive in the UK,” Russell says. Each piece is followed through the workshop by one craftsman, then stamped with a maker's mark, numbered and signed. Using a small range of standard components means that the armoire can be fitted inside with shelves, drawers, rails and even wineracks to store almost everything in the house: kitchen pans and provisions; clothes and shoes; TV, DVD or hi-fi; or traditional linens. The interiors can also be adapted for bespoke requests, “no matter how left field”.

The Alba Armoire has double doors (shown), and is also available in a “skinny” one-door version. With its asymmetric assembly of raised panels that resemble moulded plaster, it is technically complex to make: machined MDF panels are glued to a board and then coated with a hard-wearing matt lacquer. This can be in any colour, but the best seller is white. All the wood and MDF used is FSC-certified and therefore sustainably sourced. To cut down on packaging waste, pieces are delivered “blanket-wrapped”.

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2008 Ceramics & Glassware Award

Winner Yauatcha Tea Set
Designed by Shin Azumi
Price From £95 set
Contact Yauatcha, 15/17 Broadwick Street, London W1F 0DL, 020 7494 8888

Shin Azumi is a Japanese designer who came to London in 1992 and studied industrial design at the Royal College of Art, from which he graduated in 1995. Since then, his studio has designed many acclaimed products in ceramic, metal and wood, often with a touch of the unexpected.

His award-winning tea set (designed for the Yauatcha restaurant in London's Soho) takes traditional Japanese shapes, materials and manufacturing techniques and gives them a contemporary, sophisticated look for an international market. The teapot is made from a fine-grained clay found in Tokoname in Japan. As this clay does not need glazing, its surface remains ultra-smooth, making it matt and silky to the touch. The tea set includes two cups that are made from the same clay, but glazed inside. The teapot is lined with a band of mesh (known as obi-ami in Japanese), which lets the tea leaves circulate freely in hot water and reach their full flavour, without clogging the spout. The tray and saucers are made using another Japanese technique, called bunako, based on the traditional technique, incorporated in Japanese lacquerware, of coiling and gluing together thin strips of beechwood like a roll of ribbon to make a flat surface which is then shaped by hand.

The attractive effect is like the rings of a tree, and in the tea set itself there is a pleasing contrast between wood and ceramic. “I wanted to use authentic, highly developed Japanese craft techniques,” says Shin. “At the same time I wanted to make a sophisticated, cosmopolitan and functional product with a timeless beauty.”

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2008 Lighting Award

Winner Catherine Wheel Light
Designed by Jona Hoad
Price From £215
Contact 020 7731 8886, www.hectorfinch.com/

Jona Hoad, who set up his own studio in 1991, originally trained as a furniture designer at Buckinghamshire College but rapidly gravitated towards lighting, where he developed sophisticated techniques for cutting, etching and shaping acrylic sheet. His colourful glowing pieces (mostly made to order) are in great demand for homes, hotels and bars. His award-winning light, however, is a production piece for Hector Finch. Aptly called the Catherine Wheel, it grew out of the Eureka scheme, which puts makers in touch with designers.

Apart from its “shade”, the light is made from standard components to keep production costs down. The shade is a mirrored acrylic disc covered in an intricate pattern that was meticulously worked out on a computer. This was sent electronically to one of the most advanced laser etching machines in the country, which removes the silvering from the back of the disc to reveal the design.

Switched on at night, the light shines through the pattern which looks like a spidery doily. By day, the mirror catches and reflects any natural light. Fixed in the centre of the ceiling, the Catherine Wheel becomes an updated take on the classic ceiling rose, but the light can also be fixed to the wall. Using an ordinary compact fluorescent low-energy bulb, which is hidden from view, the light has minimal impact on the environment. It comes in two diameters, 35cm and 40cm, both of which are just 63mm deep.

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2008 Flooring Award

Winner Futura Nero Porcelain Tiles
Designed by Ellen Bachman
Price From £34.58sq m
Contact 020 7736 9610, www.criterion-tiles.co.uk/

Tom Sedgwick, managing director of Criterion Tiles in south west London, which has been trading for more than 25 years, travels the world looking for exclusive new ideas. His latest discovery is Futura Nero porcelain floor tiles, designed by Ellen Bachman at Meridiana Ceramiche in Modena, Italy. Made using advanced manufacturing techniques, such as roto-colour printing and gas-infused glazing, each tile acquires its own distinctive abstract “pattern” and the richly coloured glazes have a metallic sheen.

No two tiles are alike but, laid together, they create an unusual but chic floor surface which looks like pieces of aged metal sheet with a beautiful, almost rusty-looking, patina. The effect is sleek, low-key and very contemporary – well-suited for pared-down modern interiors. It would also blend well with more traditional patterns and furnishings. The material – porcelain stoneware – has a luxurious appearance, yet it is reasonably priced, easy to lay, hard-wearing and simple to keep clean. The tiles come in four metallic colours: Nero (black, shown), Bianco (white), Rame (copper) and Grigio (grey). Thanks to advanced technology, it is possible for this elegant ceramic flooring to be produced in large sizes. The larger sizing not only makes it easy to adapt the tiles to an individual floor layout, but also gives an impression of slabs rather than of conventional smaller tiles. Futura Nero porcelain tiles come in four sizes: 50x100cm (shown), 50x50cm, 33x66cm and 20x100cm.

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2008 Young Designer's Award

Winner The SmartBoard
Designed by Giles Wilson-Copp
Price From Price on application
Contact 020 8305 2702, www.studio-caparo.com

Giles Wilson-Copp, 29, originally studied music at Nottingham Trent University before realising that he wanted to work, like his father before him, with wood and metal. So he embarked on a cabinetmaking apprenticeship and took a City & Guilds joinery course. Enthusiastically building on this practical groundwork, he went on to study furniture design and metalwork at the London Metropolitan University, from which he graduated last summer.

The incredibly clever Smartboard, which has already won Giles a prize at his students' degree show, is an answer to the shortage of space in so many of today's homes. Basically, it is a sideboard, with a sculptural-looking front from which you can pull out a table with drop-down legs and four sturdy chairs. This does not disturb the sideboard and its four generous drawers or their contents that are left behind. Further storage exists at the bottom in four cupboards which can be taken out and used as extra stools. The Smartboard is made from lacquered MDF, strengthened with steel supports and topped with glass. All timber-based components are FSC-certified and packaging is biodegradable. The Smartboard will be in commercial production this year as a launch product for a new brand called Studio Caparo.

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2008 Homes & Gardens Award

Winner Fire Jacks
Designed by Lynn Kingelin
Price From £164.50
Contact 07906 947627, www.lynnkingelin.com

Fire Jacks are an attractive, witty take on the faux coal, pebbles or logs normally associated with a gas fire. Inspired by the children's game of Jacks, the slip-cast ceramic shapes, created by designer Lynn Kingelin, sit inside a fire grate and look elegant when the fire is off and are brought back to life with the flickering flames when the fire is on.

Exclusively licensed and distributed by Verine, the jacks come in white, black, crazed white and gold, with prices ranging from £164.50 a set for the white to £270 for gold (a set includes three small and two large spheres; and seven small, six medium and three large jacks). In addition to Fire Jacks, Lynn is known for creating innovative designs with recycled products, using shredded paper to make a waste-paper bin and upholster a chair.

Lynn has been working as a professional designer since 1997 from her own design studio; she also works as a consultant. A graduate member of the Chartered Society of Designers and Member of the Institute of Directors, she has a degree in Architecture from the University of Washington in Seattle, and an MA in Design Products from the Royal College of Art.

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2008 Judges Award

Winner Alba Armoire
Designed by Russell Pinch
Price From £2,695
Contact 020 7501 9262, www.pinchdesign.com

It was surely only a matter of time before Russell Pinch's extraordinary talent as a designer would be recognised by the judges of the Classic Design Awards. In a relatively short career (he is still in his early 30s) Russell has demonstrated an impressive diversity of style, from designs for sleek, uncompromisingly modern, upholstered furniture to cabinetry firmly rooted in the English furniture-making tradition, using time-honoured techniques to create contemporary interpretations of classic items. His greatest skill as a designer, however, must be his capacity to surprise, a knack that is evident in pieces such as the Wave sideboard and Twig bench.

Of all his recent work, the Alba Armoire is one that combines all these qualities. One of three versatile armoire designs, it is not just an example of innovative design, it also offers consumers the ultimate in versatility with a huge range of finishes and storage configurations inside for bed-room, home office and kitchen use. “This award is richly deserved,” says editor Deborah Barker. “Russell Pinch is a designer who perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the Classic Design Awards.”

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