Reigning Designer of the Year Philippe Malouin turns judge for 2019 Wallpaper* Design Awards

When Philippe Malouin was crowned Designer of the Year in 2018, we were impressed by how prolific the Canadian designer had been for the previous 12 months. Post-accolade, Malouin had a similarly busy year, with new projects for international brands such as Resident, ZaoZuo and SCP, but most importantly, with an exhibition chronicling the ten years since he opened his studio, shown in Hyères’ Villa Noailles as part of the annual Design Parade festival.

Seen together, the works demonstrated the designer’s versatility with materials and craft, and his experimentation with shapes and concepts, turning an intuition into a design object. Coincidentally, Malouin’s Designer of the Year successor, Pierre Yovanovich, also took part in the southern French design festival, with an exhibition in nearby Toulon. ‘Pierre’s work manages to transport someone to a different world whilst retaining a minimal and understated aesthetic,’ explains Malouin. ‘His projects are always refined and utilise texture, light and colour intelligently. Pierre does more with less, because less is more.’

Malouin is also an advocate for Milan, the judges’ City of the Year. ‘I’ve been going to Milan since my graduation from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2008, and I have witnessed it change,’ he says. ‘Ten years ago, Milan seemed quite dormant, and slightly forgotten. In the last decade, it seems to have transformed itself in a vibrant, yet classical destination, with improvements in infrastructure, residential projects and restaurants.’

View the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2019 here

As originally featured in the February 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*239)