If it weren’t for the Rigg Prize, curator Simone LeAmon says she “wouldn’t be standing here as a curator at the NGV.”

In addition to being the National Gallery of Victoria’s curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture, LeAmon is also a former winner of the award, which is the highest national design accolade given by a public gallery for contemporary design. LeAmon’s design, a chair made from nearly 50 layers of automotive fabric salvaged from a textile manufacturer, took out the award in 2009.

“It was a major moment in my career,” she tells RUSSH. “And I still considered myself an early career artist then.”

Now in its tenth edition in 2025, the triennial prize has shifted its focus. This year, the prize spotlights early-career designers, with a selection of practitioners all aged under 35. It’s a significant pivot for one of the design world’s top honours, long known for rewarding mid-career designers. LeAmon leads the selection, and says the change marks “a necessary move. A recognition of how urgent it is to back the next generation.”

The non-acquisitive prize is valued at $40,000. This year’s finalists range from ceramicists to designers working in metal, jewellery, timber, glass and textiles. Designers from every state and territory are represented, including seven First Nations designer makers, with four from remote locations.

Ahead of the announcement, RUSSH spoke with some of our favourite designers celebrated in this year’s prize.

Samantha Dennis

Contemporary jeweller Samantha Dennis’ memories of childhood are inextricably linked with the wildlife she encountered growing up on a bushblock. These memories are expressed through her pieces, exploring her connection to the natural world and invoking the vast range of responses it can produce, from awe and inspiration through to fear and repulsion.
Anatomy Lessons I-III features three introduced species —a rat, toad and pigeon — their porcelain bodies cut open as though mid dissection. A closer look reveals that their organs have been rendered as wearable jewellery — a charm bracelet, a series of lockets, and an elaborate ring.

Ella Badu

When Badu, a trained metallurgist, returned to West Africa to discover her heritage she also set about learning the traditional casting techniques. For Ase ama, Badu flayed fish bought from a local marker and set about washing and bleaching the bones. The result is a sprawling, talismanic piece of wearable jewellery, embedded with tradition and narrative. The wearable vessel recasts traditions from precolonial Ghana, using a contemporary approach that explores themes of spirituality, queerness, and resilience. A hidden compartment contains a small pod of shea butter, introducing a botanical element representing care and restoration.

Kohl Tyler

Kohl Tyler’s ceramics summon the ephemerality and interconnectedness of the natural world. Each vessel ripples with undulations that suggest movement, organic matter and transformation. Working with methods such as slab-building, coiling, carving and hand-building, Tyler’s process eschews that of the mass-produced in favour of a slow, meditative approach. The vessels don’t appear to have been made by the human hand, they look as if they’ve emerged, or grown, organically in and of themselves.

Emma Shepherd

Working from her studio in Mornington Peninsula Emma Shepherd’s woven works are made not with the traditional fibres one might associate with weaving, rather with banana and coconut fibres. Shepherd is a devotee of the Bauhaus school where art, craft and design were treated as equal and connected disciplines. Her work is inspired by Anni Albers, whose practice blurred the lines between craft and art and who famously said, “I learn to listen to threads and speak their language.” For her piece Shape/shifting, Shepherd created three large textile screens that run on tracks, reminiscent of Japanese Shoji screens. These sliding screens could be used to regulate interior temperatures, serve as room dividers, or become portals for light to filter through. Each screen features small boxes that are like windows through to the other side.

Dallissa Brown

As the youngest of the acclaimed Hermannsburg Potters, Dalissa Brown has inherited a wealth of knowledge and a strong community of teachers. Her grandmother, senior artist Dawn Wheeler, is her guide in the traditions of both pottery and cultural storytelling. Each if Brown’s pots features scenes from her daily life — picnics with her partner and child, broked down cars, and unexpected encounters on country.

Brown says, “At the pottery, we paint our stories on the clay, learning and sharing Western Aranda culture with other artists. I learned to make pots from my grandmother, Dawn Wheeler, and my partner’s grandmother, Kumantjai R. Ungwanaka. Now I make pots with my own stories, in my own way. My body of work shares stories and experiences from young lives lived in my remote Aboriginal community of Ntaria. It is a snapshot of my practice, showing my own unique style, but also show how that sits within the collective history of Hermannsburg Potters.’

The Rigg Design Prize is on at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia until February 2026. Entry is free.