FormFlow is honoured to be among the winners of Australia’s peak international design awards, receiving a prestigious Best in Class Accolade yesterday during 2021 Good Design Awards Week.

The Good Design Awards are the highest honour for design and innovation in the nation and reward projects across 12 design disciplines and 30 subcategories. 

FormFlow’s CustomFlow C90 was recognised in the Product Design category for outstanding design and innovation. FormFlow’s technology creates a discrete and aesthetically appealing bend in corrugated metal sheeting, producing an airtight, structural connection at corners and enabling a host of new solutions for sustainable and low-cost building fabrication.

The Good Design Awards Jury commented: “This is a great use of material that will reduce construction time, finishing and extend the life of joints and structures. It’s an innovative product with many potential applications due to its unique aesthetic and structural properties. Overall, the product is elegant and deceptively simple and worthy of the highest level of recognition in this category. Well done.”

“It was not until we were told we had won that we read through the other entries in this category — it is such an impressive field of companies and products that we can’t quite believe we won,” said Dr Matthew Dingle, co-founder and Managing Director at FormFlow.

“We were so inspired by some of the other companies that we are already looking at ways to work together.’

The CustomFlow C90 is now widely available through BlueScope Lysaght. BlueScope’s National Sales, Marketing & Innovation Manager Matt Lloyd said,

“The combination of the CUSTOMFLOW C90 cornered cladding and Lysaght’s ever-popular CUSTOM ORB corrugated profile is set to provide a contemporary unique and cost-effective solution for roofing and walling applications. It delivers a brilliant combination of aesthetics and functionality.”

The Australian Good Design Awards is the country’s oldest and most prestigious international awards for design and innovation, with a proud history dating back to 1958, and celebrates the best new products and services on the Australian and international market.

“Design-led innovation is the basis of our business model, and is clearly evident in all the other entries in our category. We believe that celebrating and supporting design is the key to a bright future for Australia,” added Dr Dingle.

“World-leading design leads to innovative new products and processes that can be manufactured in Australia, providing new jobs and opportunities.”

Yesterday’s award continues a busy year for FormFlow, which was formed in 2016 by Dr Dingle, A/Prof Matthias Weiss from Deakin University, and Austeng’s Ross and Lyn George.

In March the company was selected as the overall winner among 40 Aussie innovations in the Australia by Design – Innovations series, which aired on Channel 10. This month it is a finalist in the Geelong Business Excellence Awards and the Australian Technologies Competition.

Other 2021 developments include an Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre-supported project with Deakin’s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) to develop an Industry 4.0 enabled manufacturing cell.

FormFlow is currently completing a capital raise to support the next phase of its growth, and will continue to work with partners Deakin University, BlueScope and others to explore emerging opportunities.

“Our plan over the next 2-3 years is to expand our team and accelerate the development of key technologies to target housing affordability and accessibility and develop building solutions that improve bushfire resilience, reduce carbon emissions and eliminate waste,” concluded Dr Dingle.