Brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec were announced as the winners of this year's prestigious Panerai London Design Medal. Richard Rogers, renowned architect and designer of the Leadenhall Building, received the Coutts Lifetime Achievement Medal. Nicolas Roope, founder of Poke, was awarded the Perrier Jouet Design Entrepreneur Medal and Roland Lamb, designer of the award-winning Seaboard - a new advance in music production - was awarded the Swarovski Emerging Talent Medal.
The medal is the highest accolade bestowed upon an individual or in this case, individuals, who have distinguished themselves within the industry and demonstrated consistent design excellence over a number of years.
Ronan (born 1971) and Erwan Bouroullec (born 1976) are brothers and designers based in Paris. They began working together fifteen years ago having completed their studies at the École supérieure des Arts décoratifs in Paris and École nationale supérieure des Arts in Cergy.
In 1997, they were spotted by Cappellini, giving them their first industrial design projects. They began working with the Galerie kreo in 2000 and had their first solo show there in 2001. Issey Miyake then hired them to design the boutique to house his new collection 'A-Poc.' They worked on a new office system called 'Joyn' for Vitra and have also worked with Alessi, Axor Hansgrohe, Cappellini, Established & Sons, Flos, Glas Italia, Hay, Kvadrat, Kartell, Ligne Roset, Magis, Mattiazzi, Mutina and Nani Marquina.
From designing spaces to furniture to accessories, taking on architectural projects to designing textile wall systems or comprehensive collections, the designers maintain experimental activity with Gallery Kreo.
Examples of their designs have been included in the permanent collection at The Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Design Museum in London, and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
The Bouroullecs were responsible for one of the London Design Festival's most successful landmark projects, Textile Field, a remarkable platform made from a variety of panels using Kvadrat material, which was installed in the Raphael Gallery at the V&A in 2011.
Photo: Ola Rinda