World-class designers awarded for making an impact

The annual School of Design Awards acknowledge the achievements of top-class designers and notes the impact they have made in the world of design.

Now in its third year, the awards include five categories: Design Advocacy, Design Fellow, Design Innovation, Emerging Talent, and Enterprise.

Terry Mansfield CBE, Chair of Graduate Fashion Week received this year’s Design Advocacy Award, which is awarded to individuals who have embraced design, understand the value it can bring to society, champion design and nurture new designers. Terry is the former President and CEO of The National Magazine Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation, one of the largest diversified media companies. Terry was awarded the CBE in 2002 for services to the magazine industry.

The Design Fellow Award went to Nick Oakley of Intel, the leading producer of microchips, computing and communications products. The special award recognised Nick’s long standing friendship and championing of the School of Design.

The award for Design Innovation, which recognises an individual who has continuously pushed the boundaries of design throughout their career, went to Jeremy Myerson, Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art. A leading author, academic and activist in the field, Jeremy was founding editor of Design Week, the world’s first weekly news magazine for designers and their clients. He is a board member of the Design Council and a trustee of the Audi Design Foundation and the Gordon Russell Trust.

Fashion designer and Northumbria graduate, Scott Henshall, scooped the Enterprise Award, which honours individuals who have had an impact on the design world and, through creativity and design practice, given leadership to enterprise within society and industry.  

Entrepreneurs and Northumbria graduates, Dan Ziglam and Elliott Brook were presented with the Emerging Talent Award for their successful furniture company, Deadgood. The award is given to people who have made a huge impact on the world of design within five years of graduating. Since Dan and Elliott founded Deadgood in 2004, the company has grown from strength to strength, with some of their products appearing on the BBC, Channel 4 and Living TV and their designers winning a host of international design awards.

The School of Design Awards were presented to the winners at the University’s award-winning City Campus East building this month.

Professor Steven Kyffin, Dean of the School of Design, said: “The winners of these awards have been chosen not only because of their own significant achievements and impacts on the design industry as a whole, but also for the ways in which their successes and innovations have inspired and continue to inspire the future generation of designers in the UK and internationally.”