Immense; Rado Star Prize; The Winner Takes It All
By Jo Phillips
London is without a doubt one of the most important cities for design, and such innovative ideas and concepts go on to affect the international world of design. With the city being in the mist of Design Week its no wonder the designjunction’s hub at Kings Cross were keen to host a prestigious prize for a young designer. Partnering up with world famous watch brand Rado, the two brands were able to bring Rado’s international competition, the Rado Star Prize, to London for the first time!
Rado have, in the past, created some of the world’s most desirable watches which have always been world firsts in concept, design and materials, and as part of their unwavering dedication to creating a new frontier of design pieces set up Rado Star Prize to support young, unestablished designers.
Welcomed with open arms to the UK, for the first time this year, the Rado Star Prize asked Britain’s young designers to submit a range of projects, in either a conceptual or material sense, to the theme of ‘Design Meets Time.’ Projects ranged from glassware, lighting to furniture –with the judges including industrial designer Konstantin Grcic and Vice President of Product Management at Rado, Hakim El Kadiri.
At an exclusive event held at the London Design Festival on Thursday 21 September, Rado and designjunction announced Joachim Froment, who impressed the judges with the clever design concept of his 0.6 Chair, as the UK’s first ever winner!
Winner of the inaugural Rado Star Prize UK, Joachim Froment being presented with his award
As the winner, young Belgian designer Joachim received a well-deserved £5,000 cash prize and his very own iconic Rado Ceramica, a classic timepiece which was recently relaunched last year.
Joachim, who completed his Master’s degree at London’s respected Royal College of Art in Design Products, won this prestigious competition by providing the judging panel with his robust, long lasting chair made from his simple yet ecological manufacturing process of laminated wood with wood veneer and carbon fibre. The process, in which the chair is manufactured in two parts, means that not only the manufacturing time is reduced but so is the thickness of the chair to 0.6cm – very eco-friendly indeed!
“The 0.6 chair is the perfect winner of the inaugural Rado Star Prize UK, with a fantastic story of saving time during manufacture. The sleek design is the epitome of cutting-edge design, and we are delighted to have it as part of designjunction.” – Will Sorrell, Event Director at designjunction
The first-ever winning design of the Rado Star Prize UK – 0.6 Chair designed by Joachim Froment
Image Courtesy of Rado
Brought to life by the desire for longevity and sustainability all 10 shortlisted designs have been exhibited as part of London Design Festival since Thursday 21st September and will continue to be on display until Sunday 24th September 2017. So if you haven’t already visited, there is still time!
Read more on each of the 10 UK finalists on our online magazine here.
