Mount Temple native, Peter Rigney (third from left) accepts a gold medal at the prestigious POPAI UK & Ireland Design Awards in London last week, where his company, Rigney Forge, beat off still competition from a large number of nominees to secure the top award for a supermarket which his company designed in London. Also in the picture is host at the awards ceremony, Samantha Quek, Aisling O’Riordan, (Designer at Rigney Forge), and Alastair Fraser from the sponsor Scala.

Mount Temple firm wins gold at international design awards

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Mount Temple-based design studio Rigney Forge is celebrating this week after beating off stiff competition from a number of high-profile nominees to win a gold medal at the prestigious Point-of-Purchase Advertising International (POPAI) Design Awards in London.

The POPAI UK and Ireland Awards celebrate creativity, innovation and excellence in-store, online and throughout the shopper experience, and Rigney Forge was the only Irish design company to win an award at the event.

Founded in 2020 by Mount Temple native Peter Rigney, Rigney Forge was nominated earlier this year in the highly-competitive categories of ‘Store Design of the Year’ at the 2023 POPAI Awards and also in the the 2023 Creative Retail Awards for its work on a state-of-the-art London supermarket, Kavanagh’s, in the affluent north-west London suburb of Belsize Park.

The judges at the POPAI Awards described the design work carried out by Rigney Forge on Kavanagh's in Belsize Park as "A fantastic shopper-focused store design. Functional, inspiring, easy to shop, great zoning. Strong communication of the store’s values and its harness in the local community.’

In an interview with the Westmeath Independent after his company was nominated for two prestigious international awards earlier this year, Peter Rigney credited his former secondary school, Moate Community School, and his art teacher, Pamela Keogh, for fostering and encouraging his interest in art and said the school was “a hugely creative environment” in which to be a student.

Having set up his own design studio in Dublin following his graduation from the National College of Art and Design, the son of Pat (Patricia) and Peter Rigney from Mount Temple returned to his native area to set up the Rigney Forge design agency, which is located beside the family home he shares with his wife, Amy, a textile designer, and their two young children, Millie (7) and Jake (5).

Among the other nominees in the 'Store Design of the Year' category at the POPAI UK and Ireland Design Awards was the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and the Molton Brown Flagship Store on London's premier shopping street, Regent Street.

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