From postage stamps to underground station platforms, David Gentleman has made a huge contribution to British visual culture at every scale
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David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council, previous winner Thomas Heatherwick and this year's winner David Gentleman RDI reflect on their experiences of the Prince Philip Designers Prize.
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David Gentleman RDI - 2007 Winner
For over five decades David Gentleman has followed his own path, starting with a lithograph for Lyons, posters for London Transport, watercolour press ads for Shell and illustrations for the Penguin cookbook Plats du Jour.
He was presented with the Prince Philip Designers Prize, which recognises outstanding lifetime achievement in design, by H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh at a special ceremony held at The Sage Gateshead to coincide with the Design Council’s Dott 07 festival.
Special Commendations were awarded to Jonathan Ive, the man responsible for Apple's 100-million selling iPod, and acclaimed product designer Robin Levien RDI, best known for his work for Ideal Standard. The other nominees were architect David Chipperfield CBE, fashion designer Shelley Fox and furniture designer and architect Ron Arad.
Speaking at the ceremony, David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council, said: ‘The lives of most of us, whether we realise it or not, have been touched by David’s work. From his many stamp designs, in which he gradually transformed the way the Queen appears, to his timeless corporate logos for companies such as British Steel, David Gentleman's designs have both shaped and exemplified changing design trends.’
In the 1960s, David Gentleman designed the first of 100 stamps. Symbols and posters for some of our best known institutions followed, together with the covers for the complete New Penguin Shakespeare and the famous Eleanor Cross mural at Charing Cross Underground Station.
In the 1980s and 1990s, he wrote and illustrated David Gentleman's Britain, London, Coastline, Paris, India and Italy.
Artwork, a collection of his own graphics, was published in 2003. He has held many exhibitions of watercolours and lithographs and his work is represented in Tate Britain, the British Museum and the V&A.
The Prince Philip Designers Prize is awarded annually by the Design Council to recognise a career which has upheld the highest standards and broken new ground, while raising the status of design in business and the public sector and also contributing to design education. Nominees and judges for the prize are put forward by professional and educational bodies.
Jonathan Ive - Special commendation
Arguably the most influential designer of his generation, Jonathan Ive is a hugely powerful example of what design can achieve at the heart of a business and with full management backing.
After helping to set up a design consultancy in the early 1990s, Ive joined Apple where, under CEO Steve Jobs, he and his team helped rescue the then ailing company by evolving a highly distinctive and much copied design language. The result was a series of products including the iMac, the 100 million-selling iPod and now the iPhone, which have made innovation both desirable and usable.
Each is the result of meticulous attention to detail, a deep understanding of people’s needs and a singular dedication to the craft of design. Such is their impact that Ive has been cited as being among the most influential figures not just in design but also in music.
Robin Levien RDI - Special commendation
For 30 years, Robin Levien has been a standard bearer for innovative product design, particularly in the field of ceramics. His contemporary tableware ranges for Rosenthal Thomas and understated bathroom designs for Ideal Standard have consistently attracted international acclaim and awards.
Such is the depth of his relationship with Ideal Standard that he was made non-executive design director in 2004. Studio Levien, founded in 1999, has a client list also including Villeroy & Boch (Germany), Guzzini (Italy) and World Kitchen International (USA).
The hallmarks of his work are beauty, function and also affordability, a trait exemplified by the fact that 15 per cent of all bathroom suites sold in the UK are designed by Levien and his colleague Dave Tilbury. His designs are also highly durable - the Trend tableware range for Rosenthal Thomas and the Studio bathroom range have been in continuous production since the early 1980s.
Ron Arad
Ron Arad is one of the most original and distinctive designers steering a course between art and commerce. Over more than 30 years he has pushed the boundaries of what is possible in design and architecture, be it in mass produced pieces or one-offs.
While he is best known for furniture and industrial designs such as the bestselling Bookworm book storage system and the playfully provocative Rover Chair, he has also designed watches and glassware for Alessi. Arad is an architect besides, with work including the foyer of the Tel Aviv opera house and, currently, the arresting Mediacite shopping Mall in Liege, Belgium.
His work has been marked by a boldly experimental approach to both form and materials. Meanwhile, as professor of design products at the Royal College of Art, he is playing an important role in shaping the next generation of designers.
David Chipperfield CBE
David Chipperfield’s highly rational, meticulously detailed architecture is in heavy demand across the world, from the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy to Japan, China and the US.
He steers clear of personal statements and a house style, preferring to focus on the demands of the brief and the context of the building. The results, from the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach, Germany, to the America’s Cup building ‘Veles e Vents’ in Valencia, attract attention but are nevertheless self-effacing.
Chipperfield has won numerous competitions and awards, including five Stirling Prize shortlistings, one of which was for his best-known British project, the River and Rowing Museum at Henley. He founded his own practice in 1984 and today, with offices in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai, and 150 staff from 15 countries, it
is known for the breadth of its thinking and approach.
Shelley Fox
Fashion designer Shelley Fox is drawn to the daring and unusual, whether in her choice of materials and fabrics or her convention-busting concepts and unorthodox pattern cutting.
Her designs, from Braille markings on boiled wool and one-piece, dual-waisted skirts
to burnt cotton bandaging and scorched felted wool, have redefined how clothing can be worn and even what it can say. All the work is driven by an interest in how people interact.
Fox has transcended fashion, building a strong reputation in design and visual art with work that has featured in many prestigious exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Design Museum, the Barbican Art Gallery and numerous British Council touring exhibitions.
In 1999, she won the Jerwood Fashion Prize and also the Peugeot Design Award for Textiles.