The Ralph Saltzman Prize 2025

Created by Lisa Saltzman on behalf of the Saltzman Family Foundation, The Ralph Saltzman Prize reflects the Design Museum’s overarching commitment to champion new talent and nurture the development of a vibrant design sector. Each year, a panel of design luminaries select the brightest emerging designers currently making waves in the field of product design. The winner, selected for their innovative approach to contemporary themes, receives an honorarium — doubled in 2025 to £10,000 — and has their work displayed in the Design Museum.

Mac Collins was selected as the inaugural winner in 2022, Marco Campardo was the second recipient in 2023, and Attua Aparicio was awarded the 2024 prize.

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“I created The Ralph Saltzman Prize three years ago to continue my father’s legacy; Ralph Saltzman was a design innovator and forged an incredible career and company when he founded Designtex. Both my parents had a passion for and commitment to great design and this prize is in their honour. This year's nominees are an incredibly strong group of designers and my father would have been delighted to witness their abundant ingenuity and talent. These emerging designers are all focused on the future and their work, while wonderfully unique to each, nods back to the qualities my father had when he founded Designtex: vision, self-belief, creativity, innovation, and a love of great design.”

–Lisa Saltzman

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“We are delighted to be working with Lisa Saltzman and The Saltzman Family Foundation for the third year on this prestigious and important design prize. A unique aspect of the prize is that all nominations come from practicing designers and the jury is made up of a majority of designers, so in a way it is both for and by the design community, which reflects the Design Museum’s original vision. This year’s Ralph Saltzman Prize nominees are all very different, but one common denominator is that they are pushing for material reuse and experimentation with existing manufacturing processes that challenges what design is and can be. They all offer a fascinating snapshot of contemporary design practice.”

– Johanna Agerman Ross, Conran Foundation Chief Curator at the Design Museum .

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Every year, established designers are invited to select one nominee each. Nominees are selected according to certain criteria, including how their practices explore new directions for design, either by supporting the green transition through technical innovation or by presenting compelling design ideas, and whether they have established their own design practices within the past five years.

The nominees are then invited to participate and present their work to a selection panel that includes the Design Museum’s Directorate, members of the Curatorial Committee, and Mr Saltzman’s daughter, Lisa Saltzman.

This year's nominators and nominees will be announced at a later date.

What made you want to set up this award at the Design Museum in London?
It is one of the most prestigious design museums in the world.

Why do you think an award for a designer of this level is important?
I created this prize as a legacy to my father [Ralph Saltzman]. He was an innovator and a pioneer who had a keen eye, great taste and he thought outside the box. The Ralph Saltzman Prize will be a way to give these young designers an opportunity, an honorarium and a show. It’s the best way to perpetuate my father’s legacy. Designers at this level are seasoned enough and the opportunity to take them to the next level is exciting.

How did your father, founder of Designtex, influence your design thinking?
My father's love of design permeated my life in a very significant way, my father noticed everything, everywhere... He had a very profound influence on me in so many ways, his observations, keen eye and great taste impacted me in a big way, his aesthetic and love of Design was intoxicating.

How do you think design influences our day-to-day life and why is good design important?
Design is at the core of almost all things, good design enhances users' experience and can help solve problems.

Who are or have been some of your favourite designers (past and present)?
Josef Hoffmann, Charles Eames, Marc Newson.

Background image: Work by Attua Aparicio. Photo by Andy Stagg for the Design Museum.