Robin and Lucienne Day both studied at the Royal College of Art, where they met in March 1940. Throughout their professional lives they maintained links with and actively supported the RCA. The Trustees inaugurated the Robin and Lucienne Day Prize to celebrate the Foundation’s official launch, held at the RCA in May 2015.

The 2022 Prize was awarded to a 2nd year Textiles student. The Foundation’s Chair Paula Day with RCA Head of Textiles Anne Toomey reviewed the Work in Progress presentations of students who had submitted their projects for the Prize.

Winner:
Bethany Voak, Textiles MA

Bethany Voak’s project Transformative Materials aims to tackle the issue of waste materials through transformative design processes. Growing up on Jersey, Bethany has witnessed the increase in oceanic plastic pollution washing up on beaches. Single-use polystyrene packaging is not currently accepted by recycling facilities in the UK; Bethany has discovered a process which transforms it into a mouldable consistency which can be stretched, twisted, re-shaped and textured into any design before it dries, transforming it into a useful material.

Innovative and focused on practical solutions to environmental issues, Bethany’s beautifully presented WIP project was considered to best meet our awards criteria, which are based on Robin and Lucienne Day’s own design practise.

See Bethany’s work here.

Our annual Textile Design Prize for an AUB Textiles graduate was established in 2017 as part of our collaboration with AUB on the exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design, which launched at The Gallery, AUB that year. 

The Award was adjudicated by our Trustee Mary V. Mullin with Anne-Marie Howard and Kelly Bailey of Arts University Bournemouth. 

Winner:
Niamh Wright, BA Textiles

Niamh was awarded the £500 prize for Fleece to Floor, a collection inspired by the intricately detailed feathers of game birds. A concern for waste reduction and sustainability is central to her making. She has used yarn from sheep on her family’s farm, hand scouring it and collaborating with local companies to dye the yarn and create bespoke rugs. Deadstock yarn and off cuts have also been utilised to create woven fabrics. Tufting, digital printing and digital jacquard weaving were among the processes used to create furnishing fabrics and surfaces for luxury residential spaces.

Our Textiles Prize at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, was inaugurated in 2019 following the showing of the AUB touring exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design at Coach House, Dublin Castle, which provided an important resource and inspiration for NCAD textiles students.

The 2022 award was adjudicated and presented by our Trustee Mary V. Mullin with advice from NCAD tutor Bernie McCoy.

Commended:
Lucy Moore, BA (Hons) Textiles

Winner:
Samantha Delaney, BA (Hons) Textiles

Samantha was awarded the £500 Prize for her collection As Rhadarc (Out of Sight), which explores protection of Irish folklore, spirituality and the home. Her practise includes screen print, digital print, flock, felting, embellishment and embroidery, creating multi-dimensional surfaces.

Our Textiles Prize at Belfast School of Art was inaugurated in 2019 following the showing of the AUB touring exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design at the FE McWilliam Gallery, Northern Ireland, which provided an important resource and inspiration for Belfast textiles students.

The 2022 award was adjudicated by our Trustee Mary V. Mullin and Duncan Neil, Creative Director of William Clark & Sons, with advice from Trish Belford, Senior Research Fellow, and Lucy Smyth, Head of Textiles at Belfast School of Art.

Winner:
Sophie McCall, BA (Hons) Textile Art, Design and Fashion

Sophie was awarded the £500 Prize for her collection Brutalist Beauty, which explores the explores the structure, shape and line of brutalist architecture. Her understanding of colour had led her to create a collection of woven textiles that will make an impact on interiors and champion the unique elements of brutalist design.

Our Furniture Prize at Kingston School of Art was established following our collaboration with Kingston Product and Furniture Design on the 2019/2020 Robin Day Furniture Project.

The 2022 award was adjudicated and presented at the Kingston Degree Show by Foundation Trustees Paula Day and Magnus Englund with advice from Course Leader and Associate Professor Philip Davies.

Winner:
Eleanor Murphy, BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design

Eleanor was awarded the £500 prize for her Swaged Shelving Unit. She carried out an exploration of the swaging process, in which a purpose-made swaging tool is driven into a metal tube to expand it without heat. Her design is a modular shelving system with minimal components and no fixings. The tubular sections of the shelf have been formed to create a junction which allows unlimited height shelves and free-standing room dividers to be easily assembled and disassembled by hand, without the need for tools.

This year we are collaborating with Atlantic Technological University, Connemara on a Robin Day Furniture Project. Final-year Furniture Design and Manufacture BSc. students undertook a brief to design a chair, attending a series of online lectures and one-to-one design tutorials delivered by distinguished furniture designer and educator Alan Tilbury on behalf of the Foundation. All ten designs were exhibited at Interface Inagh, Connemara in May. Review and adjudication was carried out by our Trustee Mary V. Mullin and Alan Tilbury.

Winner:
Kevin O’Kennedy, BSc (Hons) Furniture Design and Manufacture

Kevin O’Kennedy was awarded the Prize for his work in progress on a minimalist Rocking Chair in oak. The £1,000 prize money is being used to take the design to the next stage of development.

Robin and Lucienne Day both studied at the Royal College of Art, where they met in March 1940. Throughout their professional lives they maintained links with and actively supported the RCA. The Trustees inaugurated the Robin and Lucienne Day Prize to celebrate the Foundation’s official launch, held at the RCA in May 2015.

This year the Prize was awarded to a final-year Design Products student. In February MA Design Products Senior Tutor Dr Alex Williams introduced the Foundation’s Chair Paula Day to the online Work in Progress presentations of students shortlisted for the Prize.

Winner:
Charlie Humble-Thomas, Design Products MA

Charlie Humble-Thomas’ project Conditional Longevity investigated the factors which influence the life expectancies of objects, including materials, manufacturing processes, and our emotional attachments to them. As part of the project, he demonstrated a range of possible approaches to the longevity conundrum through designs for umbrellas.

It was felt that Charlie’s project best met our awards criteria, which are based on Robin and Lucienne Day’s own design practise. The judges were impressed by the integrity and practicality of his approach to one of the most important sustainability issues faced by any product designer today, and by the clarity and humour of his presentation.

Our annual Textile Design Prize for an AUB Textiles graduate was established in 2017 as part of our collaboration with AUB on the exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design, which launched at The Gallery, AUB that year. 

The 2021 entries were presented and judged online. The winner was chosen by our Trustee Mary V. Mullin with AUB Textiles Course Leader Anne Marie Howatt. 

Winner:
Tianna Pepe, BA Textiles

Tianna was awarded the £500 prize for Out and About, a collection inspired by her photographs of textures, colours and patterns found in everyday outdoor settings. The collection includes printed textiles for soft furnishings, tufted rugs and 3D jesmonite pieces.

Our Award at the National School of Art and Design, Dublin, was established in 2019 following the showing of the AUB touring exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design at Coach House, Dublin Castle, which had provided an important resource and inspiration for NCAD textiles students.

The 2021 entries were presented and judged online. The winner was chosen by our Trustee Mary V. Mullin with NCAD tutors Rachel Tuffy and Andrew Campbell.

Winner:
Cliona McLoughlin, BA Textiles

Cliona was awarded the £500 prize for Into the Blues a textiles collection which explores the colour blue and its association with feelings of melancholy, longing and isolation. As the ocean was a key visual resource, single process prints using indigo, pigment and cyanotype methods have been used on natural fabrics such as organic cotton, hemp and silk to help honour and protect our blue planet. The collection considers the notion that in embracing the blues, we can become more resilient to deeper feelings of despair. Just like the tides, the blues come in waves.

Our Textiles Prize at The Belfast School of Art was inaugurated in 2019, following the showing of the AUB touring exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design at the FE McWilliam Gallery, Northern Ireland.

In 2021 the entries were submitted and judged online by Duncan Neil, Design Director of Irish Linen company William Clark and Son Ltd, and our Trustee Mary V. Mullin. 

Winner:
Sarah Healy, BA Textiles

Sarah was awarded the £500 prize for her collection Siscéalta, a series of quirky conversationalist prints inspired by Irish fairytales. The collection is intended for children’s fashion or interiors applications and aims to educate about Irish language and heritage.

Our 2021 Furniture Prize for a Kingston School of Art Product and Furniture Design graduate is a follow-up to our very successful 2019/2020 Robin Day project collaboration with Kingston Product and Furniture Design, which saw over ninety students undertaking a brief inspired by the work of Robin Day, with a Furniture Prize for the winning project. 

This year’s award was adjudicated and presented by Paula Day with Kingston tutors Philip Davies and Jon Harrison, for work exhibited at the graduate show Upstairs for Thinking, held at SCP, Shoreditch Design Triangle during London Design Festival 2021.

Winner:
Charlotte McGowan, BA Product and Furniture Design

Charlotte was awarded the £500 prize for Set Tee, a modular lounge chair/seating system. The hollow triangular back and seat sections nest together for space-saving, economical and sustainable transport and storage, before being linked on-site.

Robin and Lucienne Day both studied at the Royal College of Art, where they met in March 1940. Throughout their professional lives they maintained links with and actively supported the RCA. The Trustees inaugurated the Robin and Lucienne Day Prize to celebrate the Foundation’s official launch, held at the RCA in May 2015.

This year the Prize was awarded to a final-year textiles student whose project exhibited at the Work in Progress show in February was judged to make an outstanding contribution to innovative, practical and sustainable design. Foundation Chair Paula Day visited the Show under the guidance of Dr Anne Toomey, Head of Textiles, and Dr Fiona Curran, Senior Tutor, Mixed Media Textiles. Three students were shortlisted and invited to make written submissions for the Prize.

Winner:
Hannah Jones, Textile Design MA

Hannah was awarded the £2,000 prize for her work in progress ‘Lliw Lleol’ – Local Colour. She displayed development work for a database of natural dyes sourced by a year’s foraging for wild plants in North Wales. The materials used are unbleached and organic, and no environmentally damaging mordants are employed. Hannah intends her database to be used for educational and consultancy purposes, to influence the industrial production of textile and product design. The judges applauded the beauty and professionalism of her presentation and her project’s contribution to innovative, practical and sustainable design.

Hannah’s work is displayed in the Royal College of Art online Degree Show from 16th - 31st July 2020: https://2020.rca.ac.uk/student...

The annual Textiles Prize for an AUB Textiles graduate was established in 2017 as part of our collaboration with AUB on the exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design, which had launched at The Gallery, AUB that year.

The 2020 entries were presented and judged online. Four finalists were shortlisted by members of the AUB textiles team and the winner was chosen by Textiles Course Leader Anne Marie Howatt and our Trustee Mary V. Mullin.

Winner:
Lydia Kretowicz, BA Textiles

Lydia was awarded the £500 prize for ‘Fight for Flight’, a collection inspired by the British birds that are on the RSPB red list of conservation concern. The aim was to highlight the beauty of British birds through a series of printed fabrics, wallpapers and tiles for an interiors application.

In 2020 we continued the Award which had been inaugurated in 2019 at The Belfast School of Art, University of Ulster, linked with the showing of the AUB touring exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design at the F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Northern Ireland the previous autumn.

In 2020 the entrants' work was submitted and judged online. The winner was chosen by our Trustee Mary V. Mullin and Duncan Neil, Design Director of Irish linen company William Clark Ltd.

Winner:
Annabelle Pentland, BA Textiles

Annabelle Pentland was awarded the £500 prize for her collection of ‘conversationalist’ printed textiles, intended to dress life less seriously.

This year we collaborated with Kingston School of Art Product and Furniture Design department on a Robin Day Furniture Project. 

A Robin Day event for 2nd and 3rd Year students was held in November 2019. Paula Day presented a talk about her father’s life and career, our Furniture Technician Amos Marchant spoke about working on reissues of Robin Day’s designs, and acclaimed furniture designer Lucy Kurrein gave a fascinating account of her own design practise. Over ninety students chose to undertake a brief inspired by the work of Robin Day. Amos Marchant with Paula Day reviewed the initial concepts in December and shortlisted five students from each year to be invited to develop their designs to submit for the Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation Furniture Prize.

The five shortlisted 3rd Year students made presentations to Amos Marchant and Paula Day in February 2020, showing sketches, technical drawings and renders in digital and print format, small-scale models, and full-size prototypes.

3rd Year Winner: Frank Winter, BA Product and Furniture Design 

Frank Winter was awarded the 3rd Year students’ prize for his Pinch range of tables and shelving based on the unique new joint he had invented using laser-cut aluminium tubing. The judges applauded the focused development work he had carried out to produce a design which is both innovative and functional. The £1,000 prize money was earmarked to prototype the design for exhibition at the online Kingston Degree Show.

Due to delays caused by the pandemic, the 2nd Year Robin Day project prize was finalised in 2022.

Winner: Rory Czernuszewicz Mullins, BA Product and Furniture Design

Rory received the award for Turnaround Chair, a design which evolved from researching people’s seating habits (slouching, resting, leaning). The backrest/armrest support comfortable multi-directional sitting. The prize was a unique Robin Day 675 Chair with upholstery by Eley Kishimoto, which was kindly donated by Case Furniture.

The annual Textiles Prize for an AUB Textiles graduate was established in 2017 as part of our collaboration with AUB on the exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design, which had launched at The Gallery, AUB that year.

The 2019 Prize was judged at the students’ Final Textile Show by Anne Marie Howat, AUB Head of Textiles, and Mary Mullin, Foundation Trustee and Honorary Fellow of AUB. This year the bursary supplied by the Foundation was generously matched by the AUB Textiles Fund so that awards could be made to two winners. The Prizes were presented by Principal and Vice-Chancellor Stuart Bartholomew CBE at the AUB Graduation Ceremony on 20th June.

Joint Winners:
Aiste Karnisauskaite, BA Textiles
Brooke Wakeman, BA Textiles

Aiste Karnisauskaite was awarded one of the £500 prizes for ‘Wondrous Woodlands’, a collection of interiors fabrics and wallpapers highlighting the beauty of the Lithuanian forests, which are disappearing as a result of deforestation to meet the global demand for wooden furniture. 

Brooke Wakeman was awarded the other £500 prize for ‘A Clouded View’, a project using aerial views of landscapes captured by her own drone photography to inspire a geometric collection of furnishing fabrics and blankets. 

In 2019 we made a special Award at The Belfast School of Art, University of Ulster, linked with the showing of the AUB touring exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design at the F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Northern Ireland the previous autumn. All entrants for the Prize had visited the exhibition and made a special study of Lucienne Day’s work. 

The entries were judged by Duncan Neil, Design Director of Irish linen company William Clark Ltd, and our Trustee Mary Mullin. The prize was presented at the Ulster University Graduation Ceremony on 7thJune by Patricia Belford, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Art and Design.

Winner:
Siobhan Kelly, BA Textiles

Siobhan Kelly was awarded the £500 prize for a collection of designs using her drawings of distorted organic forms inspired by experiments with honeycomb and black ink.

In 2019 we made a special Award at the National College of Art and Design, University College, Dublin, linked with the showing of the AUB touring exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design at Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle the previous summer, which had provided an important resource and inspiration for NCAD textile students.

Our Trustee Mary Mullin interviewed the fifteen award entrants and co-judged the Award with NCAD tutors under the direction of Departmental Head Angela O’Kelly.

Winner:
Anya Paine, BA Textiles

Anya Paine was awarded the £500 prize for a collection of textiles displaying screen printed architectural lines with colour block on organic wool.

In recognition of the Foundation’s close relationship with Arts University Bournemouth and collaboration on the AUB exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design, launched in 2017 and now touring internationally, we have established an annual Textiles Prize for an AUB Textiles graduate.

The 2018 Prize was judged at the students’ Final Textile Show by Anne Marie Howat, AUB Head of Textiles, and Mary Mullin, Foundation Trustee and Honorary Fellow of AUB. The Prize was presented by Principal and Vice-Chancellor Stuart Bartholomew CBE at the AUB Graduation Ceremony on 29th June 2018

Winner:  
Lilli Rochford-Smith, BA Textiles

Runner-up:
Alice Blayden, BA Textiles

Commendations:
Annabel Criddle, BA Textiles
Roseanne Heron, BA Textiles

As the standard of work was so high this year the judges decided to divide the bursary between the winner and runners-up. The AUB Textiles Fund added £200 to the £500 bursary supplied by the Foundation.

Robin and Lucienne Day both studied at the Royal College of Art, where they met in March 1940. Throughout their professional lives they maintained links with and actively supported the RCA. The Trustees inaugurated the Robin and Lucienne Day Prize to celebrate the Foundation’s official launch, held at the RCA in May 2015.

The Prize is awarded annually to a final-year student of textile or product design whose work, in the judgement of the RCA Rector and Foundation Chair, reflects Robin and Lucienne Day’s own commitment to social and environmental responsibility as well as high aesthetic quality.

In June 2017 Foundation Chair Paula Day reviewed the work of final-year Textiles MA and Design Products MA students under the guidance of Dr Fiona Curran, Senior Tutor, Mixed Media Textiles, and Dr Robert Phillips, Acting Head of Programme, Design Products.

Winners: 
Katrine Hesseldahl and Viktor Strimfors, Design Products MA.

Katrine and Viktor were awarded the £2,000 prize for their work on Strata, a modular furniture system addressing the wastage inherent in the design of, for example, a traditional sofa, which may be discarded to landfill simply because of damaged upholstery fabric or cushioning. Instead, a layer system is proposed, where the 'base layer' or frame is durable and may be reconfigured to make other kinds of furniture (shelving, table etc), while the middle and skin layers can be replaced when necessary and customised to suit personal aesthetics. The designers see 'the Logic of Layers' as applicable to many kinds of product.

The Arts University Bournemouth exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design, curated by AUB Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Emma Hunt and Foundation Chair Paula Day, was the first major exhibition of the Lucienne Day centenary year. Launched at The Gallery, AUB on January 12th 2017, it provided an important resource and inspiration for the university’s students in several disciplines, as well as members of the public. 

Linked to the exhibition, a special Prize for Textiles was created by the university and judged at the students’ Final Textile Show by Professor Emma Hunt, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of AUB, and Mary Mullin, Foundation Trustee and Honorary Fellow of AUB. The prize was presented by Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart Bartholomew at the AUB Graduation Ceremony on June 30th 2017.

Winner:  
Aimee Hartley, BA Textiles

Aimee Hartley was awarded the £500 bursary for the work she displayed at her Final Textiles Show. This was judged to be outstanding in its use of a diversity of sustainable natural materials for a variety of applications and in conjunction with furniture design.

Our Lucienne Day Centenary Award for Lifetime Contribution to Lucienne Day Studies was presented by Paula Day, Foundation Chair, at the Textile Society's Antique Textiles Fair on April 30th 2017.

Awarded to: 
Dr Jennifer Harris

In 1993, as Deputy Director and Textile Curator of the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, Jennifer curated the first-ever Lucienne Day retrospective, which was accompanied by her book Lucienne Day: A Career in Design. After retiring last year, she returned to the Whitworth to curate the current exhibition Lucienne Day: A Sense of Growth. In the intervening years Jennifer has lectured widely on Lucienne Day. She has given generously of her time to make the extensive Whitworth Lucienne Day collection accessible to the public, lending numerous items to the Barbican Art Gallery for their 2001 exhibition Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers of Contemporary Design, and supporting our photoshoot of the collection last year. We are deeply grateful to Jennifer Harris for her lifetime contribution to Lucienne Day Studies.

Robin and Lucienne Day both studied at the Royal College of Art, where they met in March 1940. Throughout their professional lives they maintained links with and actively supported the College. The Robin and Lucienne Day Prize at RCA celebrates and continues this connection.

The Prize is awarded annually to a final-year student of textile or product design whose work, in the judgement of the RCA Rector and Foundation Chair, reflects Robin and Lucienne Day’s own commitment to social and environmental responsibility as well as high aesthetic quality.

In June 2016 Foundation Chair Paula Day reviewed the work of final-year Textiles MA and Design Products MA students under the guidance of Professor Anne Toomey, Head of Textiles, and Professor Sharon Baurley, Head of Design Products.

Winner:
Jacqueline Lefferts, Woven Textiles MA

Jacqueline Lefferts was awarded the £2,000 prize for her work to reduce materials waste and carbon footprint of garments by developing a single-process weaving technique which obviates the need for shipping to other manufacturers for sewing. 

Robin Day was born in High Wycombe and trained at High Wycombe School of Art, which was incorporated into Bucks New University. In his later years he actively supported the Bucks New University Furniture Department. The Trustees of the Foundation set up the Robin Day Centenary Project to celebrate Robin Day’s centenary and honour the furniture department in its final year before closure.

The Robin Day Centenary Project for final year Furniture BA Hons students was launched in November 2015 and run by Foundation furniture technician Amos Marchant and Bucks New University tutors Fiona Davidson and Alex Hellum. The students were invited to draw inspiration from Robin Day’s practise of using several different materials in one design and celebrating visible fixings / joints.

In June 2016 the students’ full-size design prototypes were reviewed and judged by Amos Marchant and Foundation Chair Paula Day.

Winner:
Madara Degtere, BA Furniture

Madara Degtere was presented with a Robin Day Polypropylene Chair as a prize for her fully-realised design for a reclining chair.

Robin and Lucienne Day both studied at the Royal College of Art, where they met in March 1940. Throughout their professional lives they maintained links with and actively supported the RCA. The Trustees inaugurated the Robin and Lucienne Day Prize to celebrate the Foundation’s official launch, held at the RCA in May 2015.

The Prize is awarded annually to a final-year student of textile or product design whose work, in the judgement of the RCA Rector and Foundation Chair, reflects Robin and Lucienne Day’s own commitment to social and environmental responsibility as well as high aesthetic quality.

In June 2015 Foundation Chair Paula Day reviewed the work of final-year Textiles MA and Design Products MA students under the guidance of Professor Clare Johnston, Head of Textiles, and Professor Sharon Baurley, Head of Design Products.

Winner:
Lucy Rainbow, Printed Textiles MA

Lucy Rainbow was awarded the £2,000 prize for her prints for nurses’ uniforms on sustainable fabrics such as hemp, designed to bring life-enhancing contact with nature to hospital patients and staff.

The Robin Day Centenary Furniture Design Awards scheme was set up by the Foundation in association with the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers to celebrate Robin Day’s centenary.

One hundred schools across the country were presented with copies of Modern British Furniture: Design since 1945 to award to their best GCSE Design and Technology students.