Contemporary Cutlery Design Competition
Background
The Cutlers’ Company is one of the most ancient livery companies in the City of London, having received its first Royal Charter from Henry V in 1416. The Company was a trade guild whose members’ produced items with a cutting edge, such as swords, knives and surgical instruments.
Top Image: “Extension of Body” by Hui-Chuan Huang, Winner 2024.
The Competition
In January 2021 the Cutlers’ Company launched the first annual design competition to create a set of contemporary cutlery; consisting of a knife, a fork and a spoon. The winning design will be produced by a professional craftsperson / manufacturer and will be scaled up in order to produce a 6-piece dining set.
This cutlery will become part of the permanent heritage collection of the Cutlers’ Company but also used regularly at Company dinners. It is anticipated the competition will culminate in 2116 when the Company will celebrate its 700th anniversary.
The ambitious 95-year duration of this annual competition will ultimately create an extraordinary snapshot of British design in the 21st Century and offer young designers of the future a chance to explore the delights of making such intimate everyday objects.
Submission Pieces
Upscaled Set
The Brief
Design a set of contemporary cutlery; consisting of a knife, a fork and a spoon.
The cutlery must be fit for purpose and applicants should take into consideration the full sensory experience of the cutlery, in form and material.
There are no restrictions on the materials or processes used, and innovative ideas are encouraged, but the judges will be looking to understand the reasoning behind all choices.
Please explain your idea and how it is achievable using communication methods of your choice - the written word, a video, drawings and prototypes are all welcomed.
Competition entries, along with a short CV, should be submitted to the Cutlers’ Company Secretary via email competition@cutlerslondon.co.uk
Large digital files should be sent via WeTransfer.
Prototypes or other physical entries should be sent by recorded delivery to the following address: Cutlers’ Hall, 4 Warwick Lane, London, EC4M 7BR.
Eligibility
The competition is open to students currently on, or recently graduated from (3 years or less) any art, design or crafts course, at any college or university, studying at undergraduate, post-graduate or equivalent level. Applicants must be living in the UK for the duration of the competition.
Image: Robert Welch 1951, sketches of five knives with different shaped blades and decorative handles, annotated to describe the techniques used to make them.
Prizes
The winner will receive a £750 cash prize, have their design made by a professional craftsperson or manufacturer who will upscale the three admissions pieces to a six-piece set, and have a one-to-one feedback session with the maker upon completion of the cutlery. The final work will form part of the Cutlers’ permanent collection.
The runner up will receive a £250 cash prize and have their design showcased in the competition PR.
Image: “Slow Down” by Militsa Milenko,Competition Winner 2022.
Deadlines
23 March 2025
The deadline has been extended until 23:59 on Sunday 23 March 2025.
All applicants will be informed if they have been successful or not by 12 May 2025.
Please Note
The winning design will be made by a professional craftsperson or manufacturer who will endeavour to realise the pieces as close to the original design as possible. Alterations may be necessary to ensure the cutlery is able to be made and used.
The winner of the Contemporary Cutlery Design Competition will retain the intellectual property rights to their design but the Cutlers’ Company reserve the right to reproduce the set for use within the Company and the right to use all imagery for publicity purposes.
Judges
Colin Fraser
Colin Fraser, Honorary Curator of the Cutlers Company collection, runs R L Christie Works of Art and is a consultant specialist in silver and items of historical importance. He hopes to bring an eye for the past and the tradition of cutlery and flatware making to the competition. While entries should not be copied from the past however using the Cutlers Company or other collections for inspiration may indeed prove fruitful ground. Many of the now standard much copied designs we see today were innovative in their day.
However his true hope for entrants is that style, material and function will blend to create remarkable pieces to spark discussion around a dinner table for decades to come.
Richard Herbert
Richard is a Past Master of the Company, and chairs the Collections Committee. He is also Chairman of the Herbert Group Ltd, a manufacturer of weighing equipment for supermarkets etc. The business was established in 1760 in the City of London, and previously made butchers knives and other cutlery in their premises in Smithfield Market. He is also on the Regional Advisory Board of Make UK.
Simone ten Hompel
Simone ten Hompel is a preeminent metal smith, winner of the only ever Jerwood Applied Arts Prize for Metalwork in 2005. She has been hugely influential both as a maker, redefining the nature and practice of both metal and silversmithing, but also as an educator. Simone ten Hompel is a Reader the School of Art, Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan University.
Simone ten Hompel’s work is in numerous public and private collections, including the V&A, the National Museum of Wales, Birmingham Museum and the Crafts Council Collection. The National Museum of Scotland now has on display the Glenmorangie Commission. She has exhibited in many galleries both in the UK and Europe and her last solo show ‘Confluence/Konfluenz’ travelled to Wales and Scotland.
James Dougall
James Dougall is a multi award winning silversmith who has designed and made pieces for churches, military regiments and institutional use, his internationally exhibited work can be found in many private collections around the world. He is a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and of the City of London, is the current Chair of Contemporary British Silversmiths and has his own gallery in North Buckinghamshire.
Dr Zoe Laughin
Zoe Laughlin is a co-founder/director of the Institute of Making and the Materials Library project. She holds an MA from Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design and obtained a PhD in Materials within the Division of Engineering, King's College London. Working at the interface of the science, art, craft and design of materials, her work ranges from formal experiments with matter to large-scale public exhibitions and events with partners including Tate Modern, the Hayward Gallery, the V&A and the Wellcome Collection. Her work has also been shown in London’s Science Museum and is included in the new permanent collection of The Design Museum. Her particular areas of interest and research are currently Materials Farming, The Performativity of Matter and the sound and taste of materials. She can often be found giving theatrical demonstration lectures or making programmes for both radio and television.
Alice Welch
Alice is director of Robert Welch Designs, a family owned design company specialising in stainless steel cutlery.
Her father, Robert Welch, was one of Britain’s leading designers of the 20th C, who had a major influence on bringing stainless steel tableware to the households of many people in Britain, in the mid-century.
Continuing his legacy, Alice and her brother Rupert steer the company’s design and vision forward with his beliefs that good design should also be practical and affordable. They now sell to retailers and hospitality customers all over the world, who know Robert Welch for timeless design that people will enjoy using day after day, for a lifetime.
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