The Engine Room have collected two major awards for design impact at the 2017 DBA Design Effectiveness Awards. We picked up a Gold Award alongside UK manufacturer Polyseam for our work together on their GRAFT brand. We were also then awarded the ultimate accolade of the evening – The Grand Prix – for the same project!These prestigious industry awards recognise impactful, wide-ranging examples of design that have had a tangible and measurable impact upon business success.
Since GRAFT’s launch in 2014, annual sales have increased by 744%. GRAFT has also gained export deals in eight new countries, increasing the business’ export sales turnover by £1million. Polyseam’s opportunities for growth were well and truly realised, and they are now in the process of building a 50,000sqm purpose-built factory, which is estimated to create 50 new jobs by 2020.
With an impressive line up of judges including, Andy Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin, Josh Berger, President & Managing Director of Warner Bros and Businesswoman and Entrepreneur Deborah Meaden, these awards are tough to enter and tougher to win. They celebrate what’s possible when the best brains from design and business come together in true partnership and provide powerful evidence that design thinking combined with business acumen can bring about the right conditions for business transformation to occur.