Royal Designers for 2007

Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby (Furniture Design)

After completing their Masters in Architecture at the Royal College of Art, they founded BarberOsgerby in 1996. They have worked for a diverse range of international clients including Cappellini, Magis, Flos, ClassiCon, Venini, Isokon Plus, Coca Cola, Swarovski, Levi's and Stella McCartney as well as undertaking several commissions including the De La Warr Pavilion, Portsmouth Cathedral and the Royal Institute of British Architects, London.

In 2001, Osgerby and Barber went on to set up the architectural practice, Universal Design Studio Ltd. Their work is on display in the permanent exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Met Museum of Art, New York.

Awards include the Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts 2004, Blueprint's Furniture Designer of the Year in 2005, Best Furniture Design from the Design Week Awards in 2003 & 2004, Designers of the Future (with Established and Sons)DESIGN Basel/Miami 2006 and most recently ELLE Decoration's Designer of the Year 2007.

Nigel Gee (Engineering Design)

After his BSc (Hons) at Newcastle University 1969, he joined Hovermarine in 1971 and was promoted to Engineering Manager 1976. Gee led the conceptual design team HM5 hovercraft, designing the largest, fastest Passenger SES in the world.

In 1979, he became Senior Lecturer Naval Architecture at the Southampton Institute (now Solent University), then in 1983, the Technical General Manager of the Vosper Group. He started Nigel Gee and Associates (NGA) in 1986 to specialise in designs for high speed vessels, developing a portfolio of licensed patented designs and collaborating with ship and boat yards in UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Far East, Americas. In 2003 he sold the company to BNT, but continuing as Managing Director. He retired from full-time employment in 2006.

Margaret Howell (Fashion Design)

Margaret Howell studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London from 1965 -1969. During the 1970s she set up own design studio and workshops, starting by designing men’s shirts and progressing into men’s and women’s collections. Her first men’s shop opened in 1977 and women’s in 1980.

From 1980 to 1990 she had a licence agreement with Japan, and opened her first stand alone shop opened in Tokyo. In this period she also became Visiting Lecturer Cheltenham College of Art, Middlesex University and Royal College of Art, as well as the Visiting judicator for RSA Student Awards.

In 2002 her Wigmore Street shop opened. Her retail space combines interest in post war British design with clothing collections, including collaborations with furniture and product designers (including Ercol, Anglepoise, Robert Welch and Ernest Race), as well as exhibitions on Basil Spence, Erno Goldfinger, Span Housing, John Penn and the launch of her Favourite Shirt collection.

Ben Kelly (Interior Design)

Ben Kelly studied at the RCA and founded Ben Kelly Design (BKD) in 1977. His first realised project was the Covent Garden fashion store Howie. His work in Manchester, including The Haçienda, Factory Records Headquarters and DRY 201 bar, is recognised as being the most significant catalyst of the city’s regeneration. In 1995 he was commissioned to design The Basement, a large multifunctional space within The National Museum of Science and Industry, London.

Ben’s practice aims to cover the broadest spectrum of work possible, and purposefully does not focus on any one area of the market. He has taught on design and architectural courses throughout the country, notably at Kingston University and the Royal College of Art, and has also served as an external examiner.

Simon Waterfall (Interaction Design)

Simon Waterfall grew up in his grandfather's workshops, and decided on a career in design aged 10. At 16 he started his first company, designing games for the Commodore 64 and Amiga. He did his first degree at Brunel University, and swiftly after set up a digital design agency, Deepend, which ran for 11 years in nine offices round the world and was number one creative agency in the world in 2001.

After that he set up Poke, another digital specialist, where he sits today. In 2007 he became president of the D&AD - the youngest and first digital president.

Antonio Citterio (General Design)

Antonio Citterio graduated in architecture from Milan Polytechnic and opened his studio in 1972 mainly focusing on industrial design.

He works now for Italian and foreign companies such as Ansorg, Arclinea, Aubrilam, Axor Hansgrohe, B&B Italia, Flexform, Flos, Fusital, Guzzini, Ittala, Inda, Kartell, Maxalto, Sanitec Group/Pozzi Ginori, Simon Urmet, Technogym, Tre Più, Vitra. One of the acknowledgements obtained was the Compasso d’Oro in 1987 and 1995. Most of the products he designed for Kartell are exhibited in the design permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and in the permanent collection of the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

In the year 2004 the Italian publishing company Electa launched the monography "Antonio Citterio Industrial design". From 2006, Antonio Citterio is professor at the Accademia di Architettura dell’ Università della Svizzera Italiana. In 2007 Italian publishing house Skira issued the monograph Antonio Citterio: Architettura e Design.

Naoto Fukasawa (Product Design)

Graduated from Tama Art University in 1980. After having worked for eight years in the San Francisco product development and design consulting firm IDEO, he set up its Tokyo office. In 2003, he went independent and established Naoto Fukasawa Design. Apart from having projects in Japan, he works with major international companies such as B&B Italia, Driade, Magis, Danese, Artemide, Boffi, Vitra and other companies from Germany and from Scandinavian countries.

He has won over fifty awards, including the American IDEA Gold Award, the German if Gold Award, the red dot design award, the British D&AD Gold Award, and in Japan the Good Design Award, the Mainichi Design Award and the Oribe Award. His CD player for MUJI, humidifier for ±0 (Plus Minus Zero), and Mobile phones: Inforbar and Neon for au/KDDI have been selected for the N.Y. MoMA permanent design collection.

In 2005, he founded Super Normal with Jasper Morrison. He is also an advisor for MUJI and a director for 21_21 Design Sight. In 2007 he participated in Vitra edition. He is a professor at Musashino Art University and a visiting professor at Tama Art University. He has authored An Outline of Design (Toto Shuppan), co-authored Super Normal with Jasper Morrison (Lars Müller Publishers), Design no Seitaigaku (Tokyo Shoseki) and released Naoto Fukasawa, a compilation of his works, through Phaidon Press.

John Lasseter (Animation)

John Lasseter is chief creative officer of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios and principal creative advisor, WaltDisneyImagineering. He is a two-time Academy Award®-winning director and oversees all Pixar and Disney films and associated projects.

John directed the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed films Toy Story, A Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2. Additionally, he executive produced Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. He returned to the director’s chair in 2006 with the release of Disney Pixar film, Cars. In 2004, John was honoured by the Art Directors Guild with its prestigious "Outstanding Contribution To Cinematic Imagery" award, and received an honorary degree from the American Film Institute.

Widely considered an innovative genius, he has been hailed as the "current Walt Disney."

Mark Pollack (Textile Design)

Mark Pollack graduated in 1976 from the Rhode Island School of Design, BFA. From 1976 to 1987 worked as a textile designer for Jack Lenor Larsen Inc., and designed woven fabrics for interiors and carpet. From 1988 he has run his own company, Pollack, a designer and distributor of fabrics for interiors worldwide.

Erik Spiekermann (Graphic Design)

Erik Spiekermann is author, information designer and typographer. He founded MetaDesign and FontShop, is Honorary Professor at the University in Bremen, has an Honorary Doctorate from Pasadena Art Center, received the Gerrit Noordzij Award from the Royal Academy in Den Haag and in 2007 was the first designer to be elected into theHall of Fame by the European Design Awards for Communication Design.

Erik is Past President of the ISTD in London. Some of his typefaces, among them FF Meta and ITC Officina, are considered modern classics. He lives, works and teaches in Berlin, London and San Francisco.

Piero Tosi (Costume Design)

Five-time Academy Award nominee Piero Tosi, created some of the most arresting and memorable costume designs in the history of the film industry working for such illustrious Italian directors as Visconti, Pasolini, Fellini and Bolognini. His first design assignment was at the age of 22 for Visconti on his film Bellissima (1951, Anna Magnani). Famed director Franco Zeffirelli was Tosi’s schoolmate.

Earlier this year he was honoured as the first recipient of the newly established President’s Award at the Fifth Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards in Hollywood. His Academy Award nominations for costume design were for The Leopard, Death in Venice, Ludwig, La Cage Aux Folles and La Traviata.

He also created designs for Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963, Claudia Cardinale, Burt Lancaster) and The Damned (1969, Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin) as well as for Toby Dammit and The Night Porter.