The Chartered Society of Designers is relaunching the Prince Philip Designers Prize. The Prince Philip Designers Prize, initiated through the Design Council by Prince Philip in 1959, was awarded annually to a designer in recognition of their outstanding lifetime achievement in design.
Managed by the Design Council for 52 years, the Prize ceased in 2011 when Prince Philip reduced some of his many activities. Previous winners of the Prize have included: Terence Conran, James Dyson, Thomas Heatherwick, and Society members Kenneth Grange, David Gentleman and Norman Foster. In 2011 the last prize was awarded to Society Fellow Quentin Blake.
The re-introduction comes after discussions with His Royal Highness as to how the Prize may build on its heritage in order to reflect today's design profession. The selection panel, previously chaired by Prince Philip, will now be chaired by the President of the Society with selected bodies being invited to nominate judges whilst other design bodies will be invited to nominate candidates. A major feature of the re-introduced Prize is that whilst previous nominations were restricted to British designers, Prince Philip has agreed to open the Prize to international nominations.
The Prince Philip Designers Prize will be asking professional design bodies to nominate candidates early in 2016 with the Prize being awarded later that year. The Prince Philip Student Design Awards will be launched at the same time and the first awards will be made in 2017.