With an uncompromising attitude to design excellence, Phoenix Tapware continues to impress with the brand’s dedication to design and form, picking up a slew of awards at last year’s annual international Red Dot Design Awards in Germany. Including the highest honour, awarded the year’s ‘Best of the Best’ for their Axia collection.
Phoenix: Axia, Wall Basin / Bath Curved Outlet Mixer Set, 180mm – Matte Black
Make no mistake, the Melbourne-based Design/Research and Development Team behind Phoenix Tapware are raising the bar for outstanding design quality and innovation, and doing so on a world stage.
Praised by the jury for its “elegant and extraordinarily slim lines” and an “outstandingly clear design idiom”, the Axia collection took two years to create.
Phoenix: Axia, Wall Basin / Bath Mixer Set, 200mm – Brushed Nickel
The iconic wall-mounted tap, which breaks away from traditional tap design, is the highlight of the Axia collection. Designed to appeal to those with an eye for the architectural form, the long, thin spout cantilevers out from a slim metal fixture and its handle sits to one side on a diagonal.
Axia’s cutting edge design is the work of Phoenix’s in-house creative team, led by Creative Design Manager John Hoogendoorn. With an eye for exquisite detail and the experience to put into production what he creates, he draws on more than 30 years in the design industry. And it’s this experience and strategy along with a highly talented team that is leading Phoenix to push design boundaries, and deliver truly distinctive product.
Phoenix: Axia, Wall Basin / Bath Mixer Set, 200mm - available in Matte Black
“We are utterly un-compromising in our approach to design excellence,” says Hoogendoorn. “My brief to my team when designing a new collection usually revolves around the re-imagining of what is possible within design in our industry.”
“With Axia we wanted to design a collection of mixers with strong, expressive forms and at the same time light appearance that is complemented by very fine machining. The outlet in isolation is almost impossible to cast in brass but it is our insistence to push ahead regardless that sets us apart.”
Phoenix: Axia, Twin Shower/ Wall Mixer - Brushed Nickel
While a project may start conventionally enough, the design team fosters the fundamental urge to upset the applecart by asking questions like ‘Why can’t we do this?’.
“A simple question like this can set near impossible challenges, the solutions for which become incredibly difficult to find but satisfying to realise since the results are always new and fresh,” explains Hoogendoorn.
Phoenix’s Brand DNA: Staying fresh and new through design agility and innovation
Staying fresh and new is in the Phoenix DNA. Since its inception in 1989, the company has had a strong focus on innovation, which today manifests not only in product design, but speed to market.
“We are constantly improving our time to market for new collections so there is always something new to look forward to,” he says.
“The team started small, but as the company has grown we have been able to add talented people and state of the art technologies, which means our speed to market, while already un-paralleled in the industry, is only going to improve.”
Phoenix: Axia, Wall Basin / Bath Mixer Set – Brushed Nickel
