Stormtech’s Wave Grate awarded the Good Design Award Winner Accolade in the Product Design category

There is design, and then there is good design – driven by innovation, genuine human insight, and consideration for the impact the product will have both on the lives of its users, and the environment overall. In the world of architecture and design, there hasn’t been a visual symbol that would be more emblematic of these qualities than the now iconic Good Design Tick. Awarded annually since 1958 as part of the prestigious Australian Good Design Awards program, the symbol has been synonymous with design excellence for over six decades now, rewarding bold thinkers, tinkers and creators who aspire to create better products, better experiences and a better future in Australia and globally.

And so when on Friday September 8th, in the company of over 1000 esteemed guests from the industry, Stormtech was announced as one of winners of this year’s Awards, the choice wouldn’t have surprised anybody. A passionate family enterprise turned leader in the field of high-quality drainage, today Stormtech is the architect and designer’s favourite, and their latest product, Wave Grate, further exemplifies why the brand has become the industry’s go-to.

The pioneering product, designed by Stormtech’s Troy Creighton and Peter Tucker, was recognised for its remarkable, innovative and unique quality, and scored the distinguished Good Design Award Winner Accolade in the Product Design category. “The Wave Grate is a stylish and functional product that has clearly incorporated a new approach to manufacturing and design,” the statement from the jury reads. “Achieving a patented design is highly commendable and a clear reflection of its innovation. Well done on a beautiful and seamlessly integrated design!”

Designed and manufactured in Australia, with Australian sourced and processed aluminium, the Wave Grate’s beautiful design cleverly conceals drainage channels for a perfect integration. The product fuses exquisite functionality with a stunning, pared back and unpretentious form – a clear expression of the brand’s DNA, which, Stormtech Managing Director, Troy Creighton, remarks, doesn’t include half-measures.

“What we’ve learnt over the last three decades is that the design needs to be as simple as possible, yet provide multiple benefits to different stakeholders,” explains Troy. His desire to ensure the product didn’t compromise on the quality, functionality, sustainability profile, nor the aesthetics meant that Wave Grate was developed based on decades of experience and designer and customer feedback. It is quite clear that this commendable dedication to design excellence and unwavering commitment to innovation have paved Wave Grate’s way to the accolade in the Product Design category.

“To be recognised with an Australian Good Design Award tells the world this project not only represents design excellence, but it also surpasses the criteria for design innovation and design impact,” says Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia and Chair of the Australian Good Design Awards. “The Good Design Award is an independent endorsement of professional design quality.”

The 2023 Awards celebrated 65 Years of Good Design since the founding organisation behind the awards – the Industrial Design Council of Australia (IDCA) – was first established. And so it is quite fitting that – as if to mark such a pivotal milestone – some of the award-winning projects from this year’s Good Design Awards were truly ground-breaking. “There are so many inspiring impact-led projects this year that have embraced the power of design as a problem-solving tool – their design stories deserve to be recognised and celebrated at the highest level,” explains Dr. Brandon. “We are proud to continue the legacy of celebrating design, and designers making a positive impact on our world.”

With a well-deserved place amongst other winners in 11 Design Disciplines covering more than 35 Categories and Subcategories, Stormtech truly epitomises the very quality underpinning both the notion of good design, and the ethos behind the Australian Good Design Awards: the transformative power to find innovative, customer-centric solutions to local and global challenges.

“The award represents the culmination of a project Stormtech put together in response to feedback from designers, installers and end users,” Troy remarks on the win. “This culmination was satisfying in and of itself, as the quality and aesthetic are self-evident, however recognition from the Australian design community in such a way is a massive compliment to our design and engineering prowess as a team.”