JahRoc Furniture takes out the “Best of the Best” furniture award in Australia and scoops up another 4 prestigious awards
The Furniture Industry Association of Australia held it’s gala awards evening on Saturday 17th October 2009.
This event recognizes and awards excellence in furniture design and making in 18 different categories to winners from Western Australia , then moves on to give 12 awards to the overall Australia wide winners. Furniture makers from every state are competing in the Australia wide categories.
Jah-Roc Furniture have been recognised for their contemporary furniture design and unique designs which are not seen elsewhere. Drawing on their natural environment for inspiration, JahRoc are recognised as leading their industry in unique design and making of Western Australian timber furniture.
JahRoc Furniture took out 5 Prestigious awards, 3 Western Australian winds and 2 National wins.
1. AWARD – “BEST OF THE BEST IN AUSTRALIA” – over all categories
WINNING DESIGN – WEST KIMBERLEY COLLECTION
2. AWARD – “EXCELLENCE IN FURNITURE USING NATIVE TIMBER” (WA category)
WINNING DESIGN – “River Flows Through” Table + “Flow” Credenza
3. AWARD – “EXCELLENCE IN DINING FURNITURE” (WA category)
WINNING DESIGN – “Boab” Dining Table and Chairs
4. AWARD – “BEST OF THE BEST IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA” over all categories
WINNING DESIGN – WEST KIMBERLEY COLLECTION
5. AWARD – “EXCELLENCE IN FURNITURE USING NATIVE TIMBER” (Australia wide category)
WINNING DESIGN- “Boab” Dining Table and Chairs
David and Gary with the Kimberley Collection 2009 Awards
Gary Bennett and David Paris Australia Furniture of the Year award winners. One of the winning furniture designs, the “River Flows Through” desk.
With these 5 recently awarded Australia furniture of the year awards, JahRoc Furniture now has a collection of more than 45 furniture design and craftmanship awards. That makes JahRoc Furniture the most highly awarded furniture makers in Australia.
MEDIA RELEASE –
FIAA 2009 Furniture of the year awards – What an event
Celebrating Excellence in Australian Furniture Design and Innovation
Attendees of the annual Furnishing Industry Association of Australia (FIAA) Awards were ‘spellbound’ by the innovative and creative national award winners that were revealed on Saturday during an evening of ‘Witches and Warlocks’.
The award winners were recognized for outstanding achievement in the furnishing industry in areas such as innovation and design, value for money product, excellence in manufacturing, supply and retail as well as student design with entries coming from all over Australia.
Specifically there were 12 categories that each State competed in for the coveted ‘Australian Best of the Best’ Award, which was won by WA Company JahRoc Furniture for Project West Kimberly.
JahRoc Designer Gary Bennett said his team were in high spirits from the win and they were very happy their use of the Australian landscape in a new inspiring collaborative effort was recognized on a national level.
“The Project West Kimberly is something I feel very fond off as it is a collaborative project that I worked on with the artist Larry Mitchell in which we travelled together up to the Kimberly to gain inspiration from our amazing Kimberley nature and landscape”, said Mr Bennett.
“I created nine furniture designs and Larry created eight paintings. Obviously the furniture pieces are an abstract but people who have seen the Kimberly can relate and appreciate the pieces and that is what I wanted to achieve”.
“This is the third project that I have worked along with an artist and they have all had success so I think it will be a way of the future for us as designers. Even though you can’t directly assist each other, you find yourself looking at things in a different way and working with artists like Larry Mitchell, Shaun Atkinson and even poet John Kinsella has taught me so much about reading and interpreting our unique Western Australian landscapes.
“It is amazing being recognised by the industry on a Western Australian and National level and I hope that we can inspire other furniture makers or encourage up and coming furniture designers.”
FIAA (WA) hosted the significant industry event for the 14th year and CEO of the FIAA (WA) Ian Hearn said he was proud of maintaining an even bigger and better event every year.
“With the growth in the event we are demonstrating that the industry has a lot of potential in terms of growth and future prospects,” said Mr Hearn.
“The Australian Furniture of the Year Awards is growing at an increasing rate as the consumer realises the advantage of Australian Made and an event that recognises and rewards quality and excellence in the Australian Furnishing industry.”
“I congratulate all of the entrants and particularly the award winners for their efforts and I am sure that they will lead others in the industry to this high level of quality and innovation and pave the way to a prosperous and sustainable future for the furnishing industry Australia.”
The event saw more than 550 people attend the evening. Amongst the attendees for the evening were Hon Terry Redman MLA, Minster for Agriculture and Food, Forestry (Mr Redman will be representing the Premier); Hon Adel Farina MLC, Member for South West Region, Mr Anthony O’Gorman MLA (Mr O’Gorman will be representing the Leader of the Opposition); Ron Adams, President of the Forest Industries Federation; Bob Pearce, Executive Director Forest Industries of WA; Eva Skira, Chairperson of Forest Products Commission; and, Dr Paul Biggs, General Manager of the Forest Products Commission.
Aside form the awards itself, the top secret theme and entertainment for the event, that costs more than $70,000 every year, always leave attendees looking forward to the next year, and this year was no different.
For this spooky ‘witches and warlocks’ theme, guests walked through a dark and eerie roaring tunnel entrance theme, with the sounds of a witch cackling. The main stage was dressed with a drawbridge and stone arches. The tables will be adorned with black linen and dressed with medieval black wrought iron candelabra and the feature of the room was a giant skull and crossbones hanging over it.
Guests were entertained by an opening floorshow of dancing zombies, monsters and ghost-like characters. For the main headline act, two original singers from the Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, Dale Burridge and Danielle Everett, took guests on a journey into “The Music of the Night”. People then danced the night away to the ‘witching hours’ with the sounds of Top Katz.
[maxbutton id=”1″ text=”View Jah-Roc Furniture Awards” url=”/about/awards//” target=””]
[maxbutton id=”1″ text=”View Project West Kimberley Furniture” url=”/gallery-tag/kimberley-collection/” target=””]