The title of ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ (RDI) is awarded annually by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) to designers of all disciplines who have achieved “sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society”. The RDI is the highest accolade for designers in the UK and only 200 designers can hold the title and annual elections are limited to no more than five per year.

The selection process is rigorous and determined by the RSA. This year, the landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, Set Designer & Film Production Designer, Shona Smith and designer, Lucy Musgrave were bestowed the RDI titles.

Some of the thousands of objects and experiences created by RDI’s include, the jet engine, Routemaster bus, iPhone, and Harry Potter film sets. In addition to Stuart-Smith, Landscape + Garden recipients of the honour include; Nigel Dunnett, Johanna Gibbons, Andrew Grant, Kim Wilkie and Dan Pearson.

Tom Stuart Smith runs a landscape design practice, employing eighteen landscape designers and has designed gardens all over the world for public and private clients, including the V&A, Hepworth and Whitworth. Stuart-Smith is known for using local materials wherever possible and select plants befitting to their surroundings. Tom and Sue-Stuart Smith delivered this year’s RDI address in which they shared the details of the Serge Hill Project.