BDC New Designer of The Year

Prize:
£2000

Specialist intellectual property lawyers, Briffa, provide £1,000 worth of legal advice/services, including a year’s free membership to their DesignProtect insurance service. www.briffa.com

Creative industry accountancy experts; Rhodes & Rhodes provide £2,000 worth of invaluable accounting and taxation advice.

Leading design sector PR consultancy, Articulate Communication, provides a dedicated ½ day focus for each winner, worth £500, on PR and marketing. www.articulate.co.uk

Judges Comments: 
The judges celebrated Tortie’s ‘innovation, personal passion and an incredible sensitivity to materials which has reinvented a lost process from medieval times to produce an outstanding collection of contemporary furniture.’

Now, instead of trying to find a job, Tortie has decided to pursue her leatherwork and see where it takes her. She will be spending some of the prize monies on leather for a new collection.
“I have never had a reaction like this,’ said Tortie. ‘I have been shocked by the interest. With all of my furniture I have used the process of forming leather to dictate the piece. It was not until I came across the French medieval process of boiled leather that I could create solid, strong forms in an eco-friendly way. “