DesignxRI holding Hall of Fame induction ceremony for four local designers

PICTURED ARE the 2016 Design Hall of Fame inductees, from left to right, the late graphic designer Malcolm Grear; textile designer Eliza Squibb; interior designer Nancy Taylor; and architect Peter Twombly. / COURTESY DESIGNXRI
PICTURED ARE the 2016 Design Hall of Fame inductees, from left to right, the late graphic designer Malcolm Grear; textile designer Eliza Squibb; interior designer Nancy Taylor; and architect Peter Twombly. / COURTESY DESIGNXRI

(Updated 2:07 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – DesignxRI will present lifetime achievement and emerging designer awards to four local designers, one posthumously, during its Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Sept. 22 as part of its third annual Design Week RI celebration.
“We are so fortunate to have designers of this caliber in Rhode Island to induct into the RI Design Hall of Fame,” Libby Slader, DESIGNxRI board member and co-chair of the RI Design Hall of Fame Party Host Committee, said Friday. “The admiration and respect they have in the design community and beyond is so impressive and worth this recognition.”

Three lifetime achievement awards will be awarded by the organization to Malcolm Grear (posthumously), Nancy Taylor and Peter Twombly.

Grear, who was the principal at Providence’s Malcolm Grear Designers until his death earlier this year, designed the official seals for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Veterans Administration and the graphic identity of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. As professor emeritus at RISD, he taught in the graphic design department and served as chair from 1965 to 1969.

An interior designer, Taylor, founder and principal designer of Taylor Interior Design in Providence, has installed designs across the United States and in the Bahamas. She began her business at a time when women-owned companies were few and far between. Her work can be seen in the chapel at Swan Point Cemetery, Athenaeum Row on Benefit Street in Providence as well as the Weekapaug Inn in Westerly.

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After graduating from RISD with the American Institute of Architecture Henry Adams Medal, Newport-based architect Twombly has designed numerous homes and commercial projects across the Ocean State. He practices with Jim Estes in Estes/Twombly Architects.

An emerging designer award will be given to independent textile artist Eliza Squibb whose portfolio includes projects with indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, as an artist in residence position at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and work at the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab in Providence. Now based out of Providence, Squibb is executive director of the nonprofit GAIA Vaccine Foundation. In this position she designed a West African-style textile print to raise awareness of cervical cancer and encourage screening and HPV vaccination in that area.

Kate Petrie and Libby Slader served as co-chairs for the Hall of Fame Host Committee.

Tickets for the event, which begins at 6 p.m. with an award presentation at 7:15 p.m., are $55 before Sept. 19 and $65 afterwards; there will be hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.
For information, visit www.designxri.com/designweek/event_details/2016-09-22/2394.

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