Andrew Martin interior design awards – open for entries

Entries are invited for the prestigious interior design awards of 2018

Art and engineering are combined in Erin Martin's playful designs

Known as the Oscars of the design world, Andrew Martin international interior design awards is open for entries for 2018. The awards are the most prestigious in the industry, started by founder Martin Waller, and are still to date the only international interior design awards in the world that celebrate the value of interior design.

"I set up the awards in 1996 because there was a great void in the recognition of extraordinary talent in interior design and it puts designers on a global stage," says Waller.

Erin Martin's designs are inspired by her own travels from around the world

This year's winner is Erin Martin – announced in October – whose work is a combination of art and engineering, where many designs incorporate antique-looking mechanics. The Californian designer – who is the daughter of an interior designer and an architect – takes inspiration from working around the world, from Morocco to Hungary.

Martin's design is clean and crisp

She combines classic cultural influences with one-of-a-kind personal touches, with the added notion of playfulness. Her designs for her own company, Martin Designs, are clean and cool spaces that have been tailored to each client. Her travel inspiration fits in well with Waller's ethos of design. He says: "Design is the backdrop to our life, Design is about travel, cultures, art, fashion and lifestyle, influencing the way we live.”

Martin Waller at the 2017 design awards evening

Previous winners have included British Nicky Haslam, Steve Leung from Hong Kong, Swiss Jorge Canete and Rose Uniacke form the UK. And judges on the panel have previously included Twiggy, Gordon Ramsey, Jade Jagger, Paul Smith, Darcey Bussell and the Duchess of York. Since their beginnings, the awards have grown exponentially, where the impact of the Chinese economic miracle has put Chinese designers on to the international scene through these awards.

The Andrew Martin Interior Design Review has chronicled the greatest designers of the past 20 years and charted the emerging trends from the perfect symmetry of American design, the random magic of African tribal artistry, the heritage of French sophistication, the serenity of Scandinavia, the new Chinese dynamo and the playful individualism of British decorators.

The challenge is how to bring together the tangle of strands that create the design portrait of our time. Waller collates the best of this phenomenon in the 2017 Review, coining the metaphor of the ‘kaleidoscope age’.

The closing date for 2018 entries is 19 February 2018. Visit here to download entry forms