The Evolve Design Competition is Designer Rugs‘ premier platform for Australian creatives to explore rug design. Over the years, Evolve has provided a unique opportunity for new voices and seasoned professionals to see their work produced by one of the country’s leading rug companies, fostering innovation and highlighting the vital role of colour and design in transforming interiors.
In September 2025, Evolve launched its fifth edition under the theme ‘The Power of Colour’. This iteration invited architects, interior designers, decorators and stylists from across the country to submit original designs that showcased bold and innovative uses of colour alongside exceptional artistry.
This prompt yielded diverse sources of inspiration and explorations, from geological formations to emotional landscapes. The jury members – including DKO Architecture associate Jacob Olsen, Bates Smart director Brenton Smith, Designer Rugs senior designer Lia Pielli, Williams Burton Leopardi director Sophia Leopardi and Geyer Valmont design studio leader Tamara Rozo – have now shortlisted those submissions to just six rug designs.
Pielli says she is “always excited to see how interior designers approach the process of designing rugs”.
“The shortlisted designs demonstrated a sophisticated use of colour in unexpected combinations – a real a point of difference,” she says.
For Rozo, the submissions that stood out were the designs that felt “genuinely fresh”.
“I was drawn to the designs that fill a gap in what we’ve been craving within a commercial interiors context,” she tells Australian Design Review. “Designs that showed confidence, distinctiveness and adaptability across different shapes and scales.”
The six shortlisted designs will officially comprise the Designer Rugs Evolve Collection for 2026, due for release in April, marking a significant milestone in the competition’s legacy of fostering design talent.
This prestigious collection features three finalists from the ‘Under 30’ category and three from the ‘Over 30’ category, selected for their innovative approach to pattern, colour and texture. Each rug will be handmade with 100 percent New Zealand wool and shiny nylon to bring the visions to life, translating digital concepts into luxurious, tactile reality.
In the spirit of letting ‘true design excellence speak for itself’ and fostering a merit-based competition, Designer Rugs has said that the identities of the designers will remain confidential during the adjudication period.
Those names will be officially revealed when the final winners for each category are announced in late March or early April. Meanwhile, the judges will convene on 26 March to make their decision.
We sincerely congratulate our six shortlisted finalists for their outstanding designs. We also extend our gratitude to everyone who participated and shared their creative entries.
We also thank our esteemed jury, Jacob Olsen (DKO Architecture), Brenton Smith (Bates Smart), Lia Pielli (Designer Rugs), Sophia Leopardi (Williams Burton Leopardi) and Tamara Rozo (Geyer Valmont), for their time, insight and considered selection of the six finalist rugs.
The official winners will be revealed in late March or early April, coinciding with the launch of the collection.
View Evolve Collection | Contact your nearest showroom to view Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
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