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Royal Designers for Industry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Royal Designer for Industry is a distinction established by the British Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in 1936, to encourage a high standard of industrial design and enhance the status of designers. It is the UK’s highest design accolade and is awarded to people who have achieved “sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society”. Those who are British citizens take the letters RDI after their names, while those who are not become Honorary RDIs (HonRDI). Everyone who holds the distinction is a Member of The Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry (founded in 1938).

Their work is diverse, ranging from fashion to engineering, theatre to product design, graphics to environmental design.

New RDIs are elected annually and the Faculty continues to support initiatives to further excellence in design, including an annual Summer Session to inspire new generations of thinkers to design a better world.

Only 200 designers may hold the distinction RDI at any time and it is regarded as the highest honour to be obtained in the United Kingdom in a diverse range of design disciplines. In addition, the RSA may confer HonRDI titles up to a maximum of half the number of people who currently hold the distinction RDI.

New RDIs are awarded Diplomas each year at the annual RDI Dinner. Every two years a new Master of the Faculty is elected by the past Masters, who include Tom Lloyd, Mark Major, Dinah Casson, Mike Dempsey, Sir Kenneth Grange, Geoffrey Harcourt, Martin Hunt, Timothy O’Brien, Chris Wise, Malcolm Garrett and Tristram Carfrae. The current Master is Charlie Paton.

Current members

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The list identifies current RDIs, the date of their award, and the category of design for which they were honoured.

Former members

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References

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  1. ^ "Current Royal designers". RSA. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  2. ^ "Current Honorary Royal Designers". RSA. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Past Royal Designers for Industry". RSA. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  4. ^ Margot Coatts, ‘Mairet , Ethel Mary (1872–1952)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007 accessed 19 Oct 2015
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