All-star judging panel announced for Future Pioneers 2014

Today we're excited to confirm the all-star panel of designers who will be choosing our Future Pioneers 2014.

Future Pioneers discovered at New Designers is our initiative to celebrate and support emerging design talent. On 2 July our judges will visit New Designers Part 2 exhibition and evaluate the work of over 1,400 design graduates. The panel will then choose our Future Pioneers, picking out promising young designers whose work is principled, passionate and purposeful.

On the 3 July they will announce their chosen Future Pioneers at the Thursday Late event.

The 2014 panel represents a diverse range of leading industry names that have all been solving problems, pushing boundaries and celebrating great design.

Meet the 2014 Future Pioneers panel: 

Sebastian Bergne

“Being a pioneer is not only about having good ideas, it's as much about making the most of them. I'm very much in favour of mentoring as a process to help young designers make hard choices early on in their careers.”

Industrial designer Sebastian Bergne is renowned for making everyday objects special with his essential and human approach to design. Having graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1990, he founded his studio in the same year. His achievements have since been widely recognised with international design awards, exhibitions and his work included in the collections at MoMA and the Design Museum.

Morag Myerscough

“I’m very much looking forward to being inspired and finding some amazing pioneers, who will help shape our future.”

Founder of the multi-award winning Studio Myerscough. Morag studied graphic design at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, her work challenges preconceptions about the discipline of graphic design. We love her playful and bright style and the exciting way her 'supergraphics' find a home in the built environment.

Tom Tobia

“This feels like an award for a person and their principles as opposed to a product, which is a great thing.”

Designer and the co-founder of Makerversity, a making and learning space at Somerset House, London. Tom also works with people, groups, organisations and institutions to design and explore ideas for social change. He’s particularly interested in alternative education, building resilient populations, digital manufacturing, technology, food and how they all interconnect.

Angus Montgomery

“I thoroughly enjoyed the Future Pioneers judging last year. Seeing updates from them over the past year has been equally rewarding.”

Angus is the editor of Design Week, a title that provides in depth analysis of trends that shape the design world and showcasing latest and most interesting new design work. He is a former managing editor of the Architects' Journal and reporter at the Press Association.

Mat Hunter

“Design continues to transform itself, finding ever more diverse and powerful ways to drive positive change in the world and each new generation of graduates gives us their take on where design should go next.”

Mat Hunter is Chief Design Officer at Design Council, he heads up our Design Challenges programme demonstrating how design can be used to tackle the big issues of our time. Before joining Design Council Mat was a partner at IDEO, where he focused mostly on creating new digital products and services, but occasionally food and footwear too.

Sophie Thomas

“It's a humble realisation to accept that you can no longer be classed as a 'young pioneer' and equally nice to consider you may have something to pass on. I am keen to engage with these new design thinkers. They hold the keys to unlocking a fantastic future for us all.”

Sophie Thomas is co-director of Design in the Action Research Centre at the RSA. She has been working in the fields of sustainable design, behaviour change and material process through her design agency Thomas.Matthews for over 15 years, and as Director of Design for Useful Simple Projects. Sophie founded The Great Recovery, a programme to build capacity and understanding of circular design in the materials supply chain to reduce waste, now running through the RSA.

William Knight

“Being a Future Pioneer is a hard-won title. The programme recognises excellence, distinctiveness and an eye to the future. I'm looking forward to supporting it in 2014.”

Having previously been Deputy Director of the London Design Festival, William joined Media 10 Ltd in January 2012, as Show Director for the newly acquired 100% Design, the UK’s largest and longest-running commercial contemporary design event. In addition to the on-going leadership of 100% Design, William took on the role of Show Director for Clerkenwell Design Week in February 2014.

All of our esteemed panel will continue to support the careers of our winners as mentors, sharing invaluable advice and insight on how to develop their products and progress their careers.