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Assessed individually, Robin and Lucienne Day are towering figures in their own right – as a couple they constitute a creative powerhouse devoted to making good design accessible to all. The furniture designer and his textile designer wife succeeded in revolutionising taste in the Post War period when Robin used new materials to make stylish, inexpensive furniture and Lucienne revitalised fabric design with vibrant patterns. But their contribution has been much more than simply aesthetic. Robin Day's Polyprop stacking chair, designed in 1963, was one of the first pieces of furniture to fully exploit the mass-manufacturing possibilities offered by injection moulding and soon became a ubiquitous icon of the emerging British style (14 million of the chairs have been sold to date).

The Days have always been driven by a belief that good contemporary design is not a superficial concern, but one that has the power to make the world a better place – an inspirational sentiment that is central to the spirit of the Classic Design Awards.