Seljak Brand was thrilled to be awarded best in Sustainable Design at The Design Files’ inaugural 2019 Design Awards. We were blown away by the caliber of entries across the entire award series and are truly humbled to be recognised by what has become something of an Australian design institution.
Karina Seljak with The Design Files founder Lucy Feagins
A bit about the awards
The Design Files Design Awards is the culmination of more than 10 years celebrating Australian design and creativity. Lucy Feagin, the founder of The Design Files, alongside her wonderful team, created this unique awards program to formally acknowledge the designers, architects and makers who contribute to Australia’s vibrant creative community.
Nominees on display at The Design Files Design Awards (Photo: The Design Files)
The 12 categories recognise the diverse creative fields which make up modern Australian design, from small scale, handcrafted practices, to complex, collaborative projects. It’s the only awards program which celebrates the best in residential architecture alongside interior design, furniture design, craft-based design, floral design, textile design, styling, art direction and more. The 520 entrants were whittled down to 125 finalists.
Photo: The Design Files
The Sustainable Design category
The Sustainable Design category seeks to award one outstanding Australian sustainable design project that protects the environment, reduces consumption of non-renewable resources, reduces waste, minimises energy and water consumption, and creates healthy environments.
This category was judged by two revolutionary industry leaders. Jeremy McLeod, who is the founding director of Breathe Architecture, and is the visionary founder of Nightingale Housing, a not-for-profit organisation focussed on delivering sustainable, design-led, community-centred housing. And Abigail Forsyth, co-founder and managing director of the highly successful KeepCup and a fierce leader in the global campaign for reducing single-use plastics.
We were over the moon to be selected as the winners of the Sustainable Design Award for our Closed Loop Merino Wool blanket and it’s so exciting to be recognised for our contribution in accelerating the transition to a circular economy and designing for reducing global warming.
"These beautiful blankets should not be unique, in the future all textiles will be remade. Love that you are using the blankets to talk to & teach circular economy."
– Abigail Forsyth, judge and co-founder of KeepCup
Karina Seljak with Abigail Forsyth (Photo: The Design Files)
"Exemplary project. Leaders in a throw away industry. Incredible level of commitment to the production of a sustainable product."
– Jeremy McLeod, judge and co-founder of Breathe Architecture
We tip our hat to the other finalists in our category – all of whom are doing excellent work in creating a more sustainable world.
- Trias for their Three Piece House
- Sophie Gandour for Milau Milau
- Contain Design Studio and Swear Words who collaborated on Milk in Glass
- Compostable Packaging Co for their ComPOST packs
- NRN Architects for Walkerville POD House
- Champ Design for Puzzle Placemats
- BeetBox’s Glass Lunch Bowl
- Seed & Sprout’s Fresh Food Storage Bundle
- Carter Williamson Architects’ GRID Education
- Candice Choma’s Eyre Cup
The winners
Beyond the Sustainable Design category, we want to wish all of the other winners a big congratulations:
- Residential architecture Vokes and Peters for Subiaco House
- Interior design Matt Woods Design for Perfect Storm
- Landscape design Clapham Landscape Architecture for The Enchanted Garden
- Furniture design Koskela for Learn
- Lighting design Zachary Hannah for Trapeze
- Textile design Georgina Whigham for Woven Bag Series
- Floral design Melanie Stapleton and Katie Marks for Flowering Now
- Styling and Art Direction Tyrone “Rone” Wright and Carly Spooner for RONE Empire
- Handcrafted Nicolette Johnson for Dark Tower
- Collaboration Tyrone “Rone” Wright and Carly Spooner for RONE Empire
- Sustainable design Seljak Brand for Closed Loop Merino Blanket
- Emerging designer Edition Office
RONE Empire set in a crumbling 1930s mansion
Stand-outs for us were Tyrone “Rone” Wright and Carly Spooner’s sensory immersion RONE Empire (who picked up two awards!) and Koskela’s very thoughtful Learn furniture design – a primary school classroom where the furniture is designed to help kids engage. We also loved:
Matt Woods Design's Perfect Storm
Nicolette Johnston's Dark Tower
This kind of recognition only makes us more determined and motivated to work towards our vision: a world without waste. And we are truly grateful for the support we’ve received along the way. So thank YOU!
If you want to read more about the Awards, head to The Design Files to read founder Lucy Feagins’ letter from the editor.