The eight winners of the platinum based Lonmin Design Innovation Award 2011 are announced following the judging of the competition at the end of May.

In the "Emerging Designers" category – for jewellery designers with less than five years' commercial experience – there are five winners and they are: Leyla Abdollahi, Alexander Davis, Sarah Ho, Anthony Roussel, Laura Strand.

In the "Established Designers" category – for jewellery designers in the business for more than five years – the three winners are: Zoe Harding, Fei Liu, Anna Loucah.

Sponsored by Lonmin Plc, one of the world's largest producers of platinum, the competition is now in its 9th year and every year the quality of designs gets better and better. This year saw a high number of entries with the emerging section particularly strong; hence five winners were chosen from this category.

The winning designs are original, innovative and have the desired "wow" factor.

Nick Fitch of Nicholas James, one of the competition judges, commented: "The standard of entries this year was outstanding and one of the privileges of judging The Lonmin DIA is to be able to spend a day pouring over such a wealth of diversity and talent when it comes to design. I always find it astonishing at the standard of design coming from the 'Emerging Designers' and this year was one of the best yet.

"Needless to say the 'Established Designers' always leave us room for some frantic debate too. Every winner deserves their accolade as they were up against some very stiff competition and I congratulate them on their success."

The winners were selected by a distinguished panel of judges which included internationally renowned designer Stephen Webster, Wilma Swarts from sponsor Lonmin, Nick Fitch from Nicholas James, Ruth Donaldson of Platinum Guild International, Willie Hamilton from the Company of Master Jewellers, Jo Trivedi of Johnson Matthey, Jayant Raniga from PureJewels, Lindsey Straughton from the British Jewellers' Association, Marketing Consultant Anne-Marie Reeves, Laura McCreddie, Editor of Retail Jeweller and Sam Willoughby from International Jewellery London. Nicole Cooper from Blue Inc, organisers of the competition, chaired the judging session.

Entries are initially submitted as drawings and the eight winners are asked to make up their piece of jewellery to be revealed in September when they will be displayed on the Johnson Matthey stand at International Jewellery London (IJL) from 4 - 7 September at Earls Court. The pieces will also be worn by models at a spectacular awards party to celebrate the winners at a top London venue during IJL.

An exclusive marketing and PR campaign is being planned to help promote the designers and their winning designs.  

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