RIGG DESIGN PRIZE
NGV
Photography by Ayden Demiri
The Rigg Design Prize is Australia’s most prestigious accolade for contemporary design. Since its inception in 1994, this triennial prize exhibition has featured over one hundred designers across a range of disciplines, celebrating their creative achievements and providing a valuable platform for visibility, recognition and impact. For its landmark tenth edition in 2025, the $40,000 prize will be awarded to an early-career Australian design practice, drawing attention to the new generation of talent. Bringing together emerging designers, the exhibition spans ceramics, glass, furniture, woodwork, metalwork, textiles, lighting and contemporary jewellery, presenting ambitious works that reflect bold approaches to materiality, form and function.
Early-career practitioners play a crucial role in shaping Australia’s design ecosystem and culture. They bring bold ideas and fresh perspectives that challenge conventions and expand the possibilities of design and making. The Rigg Design Prize 2025 – Next in Design – recognises the energy, ingenuity and vision of emerging designers who are making important contributions to their fields.
October 2025 - January 2026
National Gallery of Victoria
Melbourne, 3000
‘These woven banana-fibre screens rethink spatial division within interiors. They offer adaptable, scalable boundaries that move, bend and join via a track system. In response to the need for higher density living, these screens function as soft architectural interventions, replacing static elements like walls, curtains and doors, while filtering light, absorbing sound and aiding thermoregulation. The use of banana fibre – a renewable, biodegradable byproduct of banana cultivation – reflects a commitment to rethinking waste and consumption. Naturally dyed with eucalyptus and iron, the panels carry visual references to the Bauhaus school and evoke its teachings of materiality, functionality and simplicity.’ – Emma Shepherd
