Millennial optimism soared, but terrorism and war jolted confidence and seemingly endless economic good times rolled right into a sub-prime brick wall. Environmental anxiety started taking hold in the popular consciousness, and sustainability crept onto the Prize’s agenda too.
The lists of winners and nominees also saw it celebrating multidisciplinary design, honouring systems thinkers and recognising designers’ global reach. Several of UK design’s grandees received the accolade, emphasising just how many figures from the industry have earned world renown in the half century since the Prize began.
2008
Max Fordham
Engineer
Fordham has helped to define environmental design and engineering for buildings. In the process, he has made sure that giving buildings heat, water, power and ventilation in a sustainable way has become integral to their design, not a barrier to it. His projects include the National Trust’s Swindon HQ and the Indoor Cricket School at Lord’s.
2007
David Gentleman RDI
Graphic Designer
Gentleman has left his mark on British visual culture over five decades, from postage stamps (he designed around 100 of them) to the mural at London’s Charing Cross Underground station. His work, which also includes corporate identities such as British Steel and Penguin book covers, has shaped and underlined changing design trends.
2006
Thomas Heatherwick
Multidisciplinary designer
Heatherwick has been called the ‘British Leonardo’ for drawing on an array of disciplines including art, sculpture, architecture, structural engineering, interior and exhibition design, plus product design. A passion for problem solving and materials has produced results such as the Rolling Bridge at Paddington Basin, the Science Museum’s Materials House and the East Beach Cafe in Littlehampton.
2005
Derek Birdsall
Graphic Designer
Birdsall is best known for his 60s and 70s work on Penguin books, completely overhauling the publisher’s approach to typography and illustration. Other landmarks in a distinguished career include 60s Pirelli calendars and redesigns of the Independent and Sunday Telegraph magazines in the late 80s and the Book of Common Worship in 2000.
2004
Lord Foster
Architect
Norman Foster has enjoyed huge international success since founding Foster + Partners in 1967, combining modernity with sensitivity and, increasingly, sustainability. Current and recent projects include Beijing Airport, the redevelopment of Dresden Railway Station, Millau Viaduct in France, the Swiss Re Tower and Great Court of the British Museum in London.
2003
Sir Terence Conran
Multidisciplinary Designer
Sir Terence is one of the world’s best known designers, retailers and restaurateurs.
He founded Conran Design Studio in 1956 and later Habitat, whose stores revolutionised the high street in the 60s and 70s by bringing modern, affordable design to UK shoppers. Sir Terence has published more than 30 books, running up sales of 20m worldwide. He also founded the Design Museum and is currently Provost of the Royal College of Art. In the 1990s, he built up a substantial restaurant business and is still opening new ventures today.
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2002
Geoff Kirk
Engineering Designer
Kirk joined Rolls Royce in 1968, becoming an internationally recognised aero-engine designer. He led the creation of some of the business’s most successful engines, including the Trent 900, used in the Airbus A380. Kirk has also made a big contribution to design education within Rolls Royce and as visiting professor at Queen Mary College London and Nottingham University.
2001
Kenneth Grange
Product Designer
Grange has designed some of Britain’s best-known and most successful products. They include the 40 million-selling Kodak Instamatic camera, the InterCity 125 train and the Kenwood Chef food mixer. In 1997, he updated the London taxi cab and later he did the same for the Anglepoise lamp, helping to revive the maker’s fortunes in the process. After starting in exhibition design in the 50s, Grange moved into industrial design with the Venner parking meter and a succession of products, packaging and interiors for Kodak. He co-founded Pentagram in 1972. Other clients include Parker, Wilkinson Sword and B&W loudspeakers.
2000
Don Cameron
Engineering Designer
Cameron has repeatedly pushed back the barriers of hot air ballooning. From helping to build Europe’s first modern balloon in 1966 to designing the round-the-world Breitling Orbiter 3 in 1999, he has led the field. His business, Cameron Balloons, builds 350 balloons a year and is renowned for ‘special shapes’ from the Disney Fantasia castle to Darth Vader.
1999
Bill Hills MBE
Engineering Designer
Hills was a distinguished design educator. He received the MBE in 2002 for services to technology transfer, though his particular expertise lay in ship design, on which he lectured at Sunderland and Newcastle universities. On his retirement in 1998 he was Director of the Engineering Design Centre and the Regional Centre for Innovation in Engineering Design at Newcastle.