The Conran Shop is proud to announce a tremendous four Design Guild Mark award wins this year, adding to our collection of award-winning furniture celebrating British design and premium craftsmanship. Delve into the depths of our winners below, to learn more about just why they were selected.
The prestigious Design Guild Mark is awarded to drive excellence and awareness in the British design sphere. An accreditation of achievement, ingenuity and quality, the award governs and influences our concept of what makes great modern design, working across categories in furniture, lighting, textiles, surfaces and flooring.
Campbell Thompson, Head of Furniture and Lighting at The Conran Shop, commends the institution for its ensuring its commitment to holistic design: ‘The Design Guild Mark award is something we are very pleased to receive as it demonstrates that our products meet the high standard of expectations of the judges who are all recognised experts within the design industry. The application process and the judging day itself are quite unique as it allows the potential to fully explain the designs in person and have a two-way dialogue with the judges.’
This year’s judges awarded four of The Conran Shop’s pieces with a Design Guild Mark, including our very own New Designers winner Huw Evans, an exciting first for our team.
The first of our awards went to the Domus Desk, conceived by British industrial designers Matthew Hilton. Refining the most important component of the home office, Hilton has created an elegant shapes table top fitted with discreet yet capacious drawers completed with a durable and antibacterial linoleum desktop. The 2023 award is not Hilton’s first victory either, as he was previously awarded a Design Guild Mark for the Case Furniture Eos collection in 2016.
A star of our 2022 releases was one of our New Designers-winning pieces, the Iris Lounge Chair. Entered into the young designers' competition by Huw Evans and picked as The Conran Shop’s 2019 winner, the chair is a nod to Sir Terence Conran's timeless Cone Chair and underwent a rigorous three-year production process to bring the form to life. The Conran Shop has a longstanding partnership with New Designers, the UK's leading annual graduate design showcase, as they tirelessly continue to champion innovation, ensuring the next generation can access our incomparable resources, experience, and knowledge. In recognition of the win, Huw noted; ‘It’s incredibly rewarding to see my product recognised alongside established designers and brands within the industry who I’ve been following for many years.’
Our next winner is a firm favourite, the Mag Table collection. Created by Daniel Schofield, the Mag Table has been in production with our Italian furniture makers for many years, undergoing numerous iterations, renderings, collaborations and reimaginings. In whatever form it takes, the Mag remains true to its original concept of statement-making, visually enticing silhouettes using intensive ceramic fighting techniques. Thrilled with the win, Schofield responded; ‘It’s a great honour to win a Design Guild Mark. To be named alongside so many other designers I admire is very special to me.’
Our final winner is the AD11 Outdoor Lounge Chair created in-house by our talented design team. Architecture and furniture unite in the AD11 in a modern interpretation of the classic Adirondack chair typology. The chair’s two independent backrests provide ergonomic comfort, while generous armrests promote lounging. Awarded the Jonathan Hindle Prize at this year's ceremony, the eponymous distinction was created in 2015 by the Design Guild Mark founder Jonathan Hindle. Highlighting the most outstanding of the year's recipients, this honour asserts The Conran Shop's commitment to great British design, eight years after Magnus Long's exclusive Cross Leg series was one of the first ever to receive it.
