If you're interested in design and innovation, you may know that we launched an exciting competition, Design for dwell in July 2007. Initially, we thought that it would simply be to mark the launch of our latest flagship store in Glasgow.
Response from design students, established designers and even school children was so great however, that we decided to make the competition a national event, in line with our new stores opening in Manchester (August 2007) and Cheltenham (September 2007), as well as publicizing it on our website and in all our other stores. We were overwhelmed by the response, we had hundreds of well thought out, beautifully presented designs, as well as a few crazy ones and several truly innovative and outstanding ideas.
The task was to think up a new and unique home interior product that would sit well within our existing range of furniture and accessories, which could be mass produced, which would be affordable, and which also of course, had the dwell 'look'. The winning product would be produced by dwell, the designer would be presented with one of the items, as well as a cash prize of £1000 and a trip for two to the exciting and trend-setting Milan Furniture Fair.
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From over 200 entries, the shortlist was whittled down to 25 finalists, covering everything from a clever picture frame with a storage pocket to an unusual angled shelf system.
The panel members had the task of choosing the winner and two runners up from these shortlisted 25 entries. Panel members Aamir Ahmad (founder and MD, dwell) and Sean Galligan (Marketing Director, dwell) worked with interiors journalist Barbara Chandler, interior design expert John Amabile, Ideal Home magazine's Interiors Editor Heather Young, and freelance home interiors journalist Linda Parker to pick the winner. |
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Linda Parker comments 'I was very excited when I was asked to be on the judging panel for the Design for dwell competition. As an interiors journalist I'm used to seeing and writing about beautiful things, but this was an opportunity to get involved from a completely different perspective. I found the whole process fascinating; from the minute the stack of shortlisted designs arrived on my desk to the moment when the whole judging panel unanimously agreed on the winning entry.
It was interesting to look at each idea individually, whether it was a shelf unit, a chair, light or storage box, and to really think hard about the practicality of the design, how it would be used, how it would be made and of course, whether or not it would fit into the dwell concept.' Heather Young adds 'I was so impressed with the high standard of the entries, but it made choosing a winner tough. It was very interesting how another judge's comments could make you see a design in a totally new way. There was plenty of lively debate, so I wasn't expecting us to reach a unanimous decision and was pleasantly surprised that we did! |
