Designers on the EDGE at Australian International Furniture Fair

(Paphop Wongpanich / Australian International Furniture Fair)

Furniture designers from around the world will battle it out for an EDGE Excellence in Design award at this year's Australian International Furniture Fair, February 2-4 in Sydney.

Now in their eighth year, the EDGE design awards honor emerging furniture designers from around the world. This year's competition features 46 designers predominantly from Australia but also from Thailand and South Africa.

The 46 designers will compete for an award in one of four categories: Best new prototypes designed by a tertiary student , Best new concept designed by a professional designer, Best new commercial release by a professional designer and Green Award for the best new sustainable product.

Among the winners at last year's competition were Stuart Faulkner who took the Green award, Rowan Turnham in the student category and renowned Thai designer Paphop Wongpanich who won both the Concept award and the Commercial award.

This year's winners will be announced on the opening day of the show (February 2) at 11:30 am local time in Sydney (GMT+11). A full list of the designers eligible for an award can be found in PDF format here.

International designers will also be honored for their work at the Faces of Design Awards: this international competition, based on a designer's existing portfolio, will honor 25 designers from a multitude of disciplines including graphic, fashion and interior design. The winners will then be rewarded by having their portfolios distributed to leading companies, brands and design studios such as Vitra, IKEA, Montblanc and Chloé. The publication of the winners' profiles is scheduled for February 2011 (no specific date was given).

For more information on the Australian Furniture Fair see: http://aiff.net.au/
For more information on the Faces of Design Awards see: http://facesofdesign.com/