Cypriot designer Michael Anastassiades awarded OBE by King Charles

Cypriot designer, Michael Anastassiades, has been awarded an OBE in King Charles III's New Year Honours list. 

Deputy Culture Minister, Lina Kassianidou, congratulated the designer for this distinction on her account on platform X on 31 December, 2023.

"King Charles has honoured a great Cypriot designer, Michalis Anastassiades, who was proclaimed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for his contribution in the design field. All of us, his friends, we are proud for this exceptional honour, which culminates years of creative work," Kassianidou says in her message.

An Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) is awarded for distinguished regional or county-wide role in any field, through achievement or service to the community. 

According to Anatsassiades' official website, also where the photo accompanying this article is from, he is a Cypriot-born, London-based designer "whose practice encompasses product, spatial interventions and experimental works, often transcending the distinctions between different fields of creativity."

"Anastassiades’ practice contemplates both industrial production and artisan techniques. In doing so, it expands into a vivid, nuanced balance between improvisation and structure, control and intuition. With a career spanning more than 20 years, Anastassiades has conceived lights, furniture and objects characterised by a poetic yet rigorous interpretation of technology, materials and functions. His work draws inspiration from many sources, which he distills into pure, simple structures. From nature to archaic references of his native Cyprus, the history of Modernism, very personal memories, art and everyday life, he transforms a rich set of diverse references into a timeless vocabulary of form and structure," the website notes.

(Source: CNA, michaelanastassiades.com)