By Claire Reilly
Fisher & Paykel is celebrating its design successes with today’s announcement that the company’s head of industrial design, Mark Elmore, has been recognised with an award for his design work.
Elmore was recently awarded by the Designer’s Institute of New Zealand with the country’s most esteemed design award, the John Britten Black Pin. The award “celebrates an individual who has shown a combination of leadership, vision, creativity, skill, energy and discipline and who has made a significant achievement in the field of New Zealand’s design both nationally and internationally,” said an F&P spokesperson.
“The understated Elmore has been one of the key drivers of Fisher & Paykel’s success both in New Zealand and around the world by designing appliances that are indisputably ground-breaking and have allowed the company to boast a genuine point of difference.”
“Leading a talented design team, Elmore has inspired a culture that seeks to create truly surprising products – from ovens to fridges to the futuristic gas-in-glass CookSurface,” the spokesperson said.
One of Elmore's most notable designs is the Fisher & Paykel DishDrawer – one of the central appliances in F&P’s kitchen range, and one that has generated over 2 million units of sales over the past 20 years.
“DishDrawer came from our study of the challenging nature of kitchen design,” said Elmore about the design. “Twenty years ago kitchens were beginning the transition from primarily cupboards to drawers, and becoming more social spaces. People were starting to live out of drawers – our observation was why not appliances,” he said.
According to Elmore, the best designers are “those who put the customer at the centre of everything they do”. And in terms of appliances that will continue to be popular into the future? Elmore predicts more products that are “integrated, flexible, sustainable, but most of all embrace absolute simplicity. Our lives are already far too complex,” he said.
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Aside from the achievements of its designers, F&P is also celebrating the success of its 2011 Good Food & Wine Show sponsorship which is set to wrap up after the show hits Brisbane this week.
“Our involvement with the Good Food & Wine Show has allowed us to engage directly with food-lovers and passionate home cooks, and has further enhanced the credentials of our cooking appliances,” said Fisher & Paykel general manager, marketing, Peter Russell.
“Our sponsorship of the Celebrity Theatre has seen sell-out audiences delighted by chefs du jour, with Matt Moran, Masterchef’s George and Gary and Manu Fiedel, demonstrating their considerable skills on F&P appliances.”
“Between our cooking school alliances and the Good Food & Wine Show we are directly reaching people who care about cooking and we who we hope will seriously consider Fisher & Paykel when making their next cooking appliance purchase,” Russell said.