MELBOURNE.- Australian industrial designer Adam Goodrum and French marquetry artisan Arthur Seigneur have been awarded the 2024 Melbourne Design Week Award presented by Mercedes-Benz. Announced on the opening day of Melbourne Design Week, Goodrum and Seigneur working together as A&A, are the recipients of the annual $5,000 prize which recognises an outstanding contribution to the Design Week program and the Australian design industry.

Goodrum’s designs for furniture and surface pattern have been skilfully realised with Seigneur, who brings masterful expertise in straw marquetry. Working in collaboration since 2017, together they produce contemporary furniture pieces that embody the cultural and historical significance of centuries-old craft techniques, all while maintaining a resolutely contemporary aesthetic. Straw marquetry is a highly specialised technique that appeared in Europe by the 1600s. Using premium-grade rye straw imported from speciality growers in Burgundy, France, Seigneur applies thousands of small coloured straw sections to a timber substrate to create the patterned veneer surfaces appearing in A&A’s one-of-a-kind works.

With a notable presence on the global design stage, Goodrum and Seigneur were the recipients of the 2022 Dezeen Furniture Design of the Year award, U.K., and the Winner Best Collection category in the 2020 Créateur Design Award, France.

For Melbourne Design Week 2024, Goodrum and Seigneur have produced their most ambitious work to date, The Kissing Cabinet. On display at Melbourne’s Tolarno Galleries, The Kissing Cabinet illustrates A&A’s ongoing interest in mechanical furniture, made popular in the 1800s. Traditionally, such pieces encompassed cabinets, desks and bookcases, often featuring concealed chambers that merged design, engineering, and craftsmanship. A&A’s cabinet is more than a homage; it unfolds as it turns inside out to reveal a hidden compartment before closing in the form of ‘kissing lips’. Its curvaceous silhouette and vibrant, patterned surface captivate the viewer, showcasing the timeless appeal of melding tradition with contemporary innovation. Beneath its aesthetic allure lies a deeper narrative: the utilisation of materials, tools and techniques, underscores the evolution and significance of craft and design across centuries.

Tony Ellwood AM, Director, National Gallery of Victoria said: ‘The Melbourne Design Week Award presented by Mercedes-Benz profiles the pinnacle of design excellence in Australia. We congratulate Adam Goodrum and Arthur Seigneur on winning this year’s award in recognition of the growth and accomplishment of their innovative practice A&A which continues to produce sophisticated work to a truly global standard. We are also delighted to be continuing our very important partnership with Mercedes-Benz for another three-years.’

Jaime Cohen, Managing Director, Mercedes-Benz Cars (Australia) & CEO, Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific & CEO, Mercedes-Benz New Zealand said: ‘As Presenting Partner of the Melbourne Design Week Award, it is our pleasure to join in congratulating the winner of the 2024 prize as Australian industrial designer Adam Goodrum and French marquetry artisan Arthur Seigneur, working together as A&A, for their winning work, The Kissing Cabinet. Mercedes-Benz is in our fifth year presenting the award and are pleased to salute this year’s deserved winners. We are also thrilled to announce the continuation of our partnership with the NGV until 2027, including our support for various programs such as Melbourne Design week.’

Of the award, Adam Goodrum and Arthur Seigneur of A&A said: ‘We are thrilled to receive the Melbourne Design Week Award presented by Mercedes Benz and very humbled especially given the calibre of work by so many individuals and studios. Melbourne Design Week presents incredible work by emerging and established artists and designers and it is an honour for our work and practice to be recognised.’

Previous recipients of the Melbourne Design Week Award presented by Mercedes-Benz include senior Mualgal artist Paula Savage with a body of work in 2023 that celebrates the cultural heritage of Moa Island; Zero Footprint Repurposing by Revival Projects in 2022, an Australian-first facility that enables the storage and reuse of materials from demolition sites; A New Normal in 2021, a rooftop exhibition that proposed ways for Melbourne to become an entirely self-sufficient city by 2030; and Aurum by Georgia Nowak and Eugene Perepletchikov for the inaugural award in 2020, presenting a film work exploring the complex relationship with gold.

Melbourne Design Week is presented by Creative Victoria in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Led by the NGV’s Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture, the program is now in its eighth consecutive year and presents exhibitions, talks, films, tours, and workshops across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. designweek.melbourne/

A&A’s The Kissing Cabinet is on display at Tolarno Galleries until 1 June 2024.

Adam Goodrum

Australian industrial designer Adam Goodrum has worked with global brands including Cappellini, Alessi and Veuve Cliquot. He was among the first to recognise Seigneur’s unique skill not long after the Parisian arrived in Sydney in early 2015. Goodrum invited Seigneur to collaborate on a reinterpretation of Arne Jacobsen’s iconic Series-7 chair for Cult furniture. The Bloom cabinet, 2018, held in the permanent collection of the NGV is the first of their collaborative pieces. Goodrum won the NGV’s Rigg Design Prize in 2015, the highest accolade for contemporary design in Australia.

Arthur Seigneur

In the tradition of 17th century French decorative arts, Parisian Arthur Seigneur has spent the past decade refining his craft. A graduate of the prestigious École de la Bonne Graine furniture-making school, he honed his hand as an apprentice first to a harpsichord maker, then to a master restorer. But it was while working alongside marquetry artiste Lison de Caunes, grand-daughter of renowned Art Deco designer André Groult, that Seigneur developed the craft which would become his calling: marqueterie de paille – straw marquetry.