Britain’s got design talent

The challenge set by housewares company, Brabantia, ‘to stop ironing and get designing’, has been met by an overwhelming response, far exceeding the organiser’s expectations.

Chrissie Button from Woodford Green, north London saw off stiff competition from 14 other UK winners to take the top prize of £1,000 worth of Brabantia products. Her winning design featured a stained glass window-style design, which was relaxed and peaceful and used soft colours.

Commented the judges: “Chrissie obviously put a lot of work in to this piece of art. It features a young woman ironing in a medieval setting, an anachronism that works well, and strangely doesn’t seem out of place. We also liked her metaphysical phrase ‘I iron, therefore I am’.”

The competition attracted well over 1,000 design submissions and ran in the UK, Belgium, France and Netherlands. There were 15 winners per country, and one overall international winner. Dutch artist Joran van der Haar secured £2,500 worth of Brabantia products, and his design will also go into production.

The design competition was open to anyone - from professional designers to those who simply thought they could do a whole lot better. Easy to enter, designs were all submitted on-line to a dedicated website at ironinstyle.co.uk

In keeping with the current vogue for individualisation and personalisation of everyday household items, the judges were looking for designers’ creativity rather than technical design wizardry.

Commented Anne Slaats, communications manager at Brabantia: “People tend to find ironing a bit tedious, so we aimed to inject a bit of fun with this contest, especially for those who have to look at an ironing table several times a week and might be able to bring a fresh perspective to cover design!

“We were absolutely delighted by the enthusiastic response and some really great designs. The standard was extremely high, making it very difficult to select one overall winner.”