New Royal Designers for Industry 2013 Award Ceremony

Tonight seven leading UK designers will be honored for their exceptional contributions to design and society and will be conferred as Royal Designers for the Industry (RDI) during an award ceremony hosted by the Royal Society for the encouragements of

Arts, Manufactures and Commerce at the RSA house in London West End. Today 200 British designers hold the title RDI and members of the institute include, Thomas Heatherwick, James Dyson and Vivienne Westwood. Non-UK designers are awarded the honorary title of Honorary Royal Designer for Industry.

Designers to be recognized at the award ceremony tonight include; Paul Brown, for his work on UK sets and costume design around the world, Ian Cartlidge for developing a creative typography for the British cultural sector, Hussein Chalayan for his innovations in fashion designs, Tony Meeuwissen for his contributions over the past 50 years to British Illustration and inspiring children throughout the country to read, draw and write, Sandy Powell for her input to the creation of UK's re-eminence in movie costume design, Patrick Woodroffe for his new use of light and energy saving campaigns and Saeed Zahedi for his creative solutions in prosthetic product design, which has led to the improvement of life quality for people with physical handicaps.

Royal Designers for Industry welcomes 7 new British Designers to its Faculty

Hussein Chalayan revealed that he is “extremely honoured to receive the Royal Designer for Industry award. He added that "this honour has particular significance for me as next year will be the 20th anniversary of Chalayan... As a fashion designer who also works with films, sculpture and art installations it's also an honour to receive this award from my peers in such diverse fields, and to be among such esteemed company”.

Two Honorary Royal Designer Industry awards will also be given to two international designers, Lidewij Edelkoort for her work as a design forecaster, publisher and educationalist and to Hartmut Esslinger, for his innovative work in changing and humanizing consumer electronics. Lidewij Edelkoort added that she was “thrilled to be a 2013 Honorary Royal Designer for Industry,” and Hartmut Esslinger thanked “the RSA for this special honour and look forward to being an active member”.

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive manager for the RSA commented, “The RSA is committed to encouraging and rewarding outstanding designers who challenge convention, discover new insights, and improve our quality of life. The work of these nine outstanding practitioners is varied but they have all the demonstrated sustained design excellence and have helped to make the world a better place.”

The RDI was first established by the RSA in 1936 and was designed to recognize and honor designers of all disciplines whose work was outstanding in its field and was seen as a benefit to society. The Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry was formed in 1938 as part of the association of Royal Designers for Industry. A number of the Royal Designers offer their assistance and services to the RSA.

Photos: Courtesy of the RSA