Silhouette Awards Spotlight 2023 Rising Talents of the Lighting Industry

March 29, 2023
The Silhouette Awards program was established to find rising stars in the lighting industry and nurture their vision and ambition for the future through mentorship.

The international Silhouette Awards has announced the winners of its 2023 programme in a virtual celebration which took place on 1st March. The whole international lighting community was invited to join this momentous occasion, with many taking part in celebrating the winning Mentees and their Mentors. The recording of the celebration can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/LjmPNNJSYsI

For the second year running, the far-reaching popularity of the awards was demonstrated by the vast number of entries received from candidates located in 26 countries across the globe.

The renowned judging panel have independently reviewed the entries and all aligned with a final selection showcasing the very best of the industry’s rising talent.

The 2023 winners and mentor partnerships are as follows:

  • Winning Mentee: Ines Bartl - Mentor: Amardeep M. Dugar
  • Winning Mentee: Jessica Keates – Mentor: Arianna Ghezzi
  • Winning Mentee: Anastasia Angeli – Mentor: Barbara Horton
  • Winning Mentee: Jessica Smith – Mentor: Beata Denton
  • Winning Mentee: Danai Lytra – Mentor: Claudia Paz
  • Winning Mentee: Consuelo Emiliana Miranda Barroso – Mentor: Diana Galic
  • Winning Mentee Annabelle Hill – Mentor: Fay Greenhalgh
  • Winning Mentee: Dane Amilawangi – Mentor: Florence Lam
  • Winning Mentee: Swillow Lee – Mentor: Gary Thornton
  • Winning Mentee: Walesca Zanonato – Mentor: Kristina Allison 
  • Winning Mentee: Chérine Talge – Mentor: Maida Hot
  • Winning Mentee: Cristina Antonieta Martinez Bergonje – Mentor: Martin Klaasen 
  • Winning Mentee: Gemma Alcalá Jurado – Mentor: Michael Callanchini
  • Winning Mentee: Swapnali Bhadale – Mentor: Nikita Agrawal
  • Winning Mentee: Alperen Ekici – Mentor: Olga Tuzova
  • Winning Mentee: Valeria Coghi Martinez – Mentor: Paul Traynor
  • Winning Mentee: Massimiliano Moro – Mentor: Siddharth Mathur
  • Winning Mentee: Olga Rybkina – Mentor: Volker von Kardorff 
  • Winning Mentee Wenyi Kong – Mentor: Waleed Fakousa
  • Winning Mentee: Farahbee Rahman – Mentor: Yah Li Toh

These 20 successful candidates will now be individually supported by one of the programmes 20 mentors for the next six months and beyond as the young professional’s progress in their careers. With the support of the Silhouette Awards’ impressive array of sponsors and supporters, the winners have been rewarded with the opportunity to enhance their skillset, pursue their career ambitions and add real value to the creativity of the industry, raising the bar for talent around the world.

Eve Gaut, Silhouette Awards Co-Founder, Parrot PR & Marketing commented, “We are thrilled that, following the overwhelming success of the launch of the Silhouette Awards, we are returning for a second year of nurturing young talent. A huge congratulations to the winners on this much-deserved achievement. We are immensely grateful for the Supporters, Sponsors and Mentors who have supported the awards. We also want to say a huge thank you to the international lighting community for coming together to celebrate the winners with us at the virtual event. The winning mentees will receive much-deserved recognition and publicity for their achievements, and we are honoured to have created this ongoing supportive platform.”

Katia Kolovea, Silhouette Awards Co-Founder, Archifos, added, “We are so excited to see what’s in store for our Mentees during this second year of the awards programme. Reflecting on the great success of the partnerships between our Mentors and Mentees from last year, the expectations are high! Congratulations to our 2023 winners, this is an incredibly exciting day. We want to say a huge thank you to our Supporters, Sponsors, and Mentors, who have helped us to achieve for a second time this wonderful ambition to showcase the talent of the future. The Silhouette Awards are much more than an award, and we are proud to have created a programme which allows Mentors to nurture young talents, Sponsors to connect and support further those individuals, and for everyone involved to build deep and long-term business relationships and friendships. This is just the beginning!”

The Silhouette Awards has received widespread support from its supporters A1 Lighting, APDI, arc magazine, designing lighting, Designers Mind, International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), inside.lighting, Institution of Lighting Professionals (ILP), Lighecture Magazine, Lighting Design Magazine, LIT Lighting Design Awards, Lytei, Skills Army, Society of Light and Lighting (SLL), STIRworld, Virtual Lighting Design Community (VLDC), Workspace Design Show, Wavelength, and Women in Lighting. 

The Silhouette Awards was established to find the industry’s rising stars who have the vision and ambition to steer and lead the lighting industry in years to come. Much more than an award, the Silhouette Awards provide mentorship support to designers, celebrate the future talent of the lighting industry, and create a supportive platform for inspiration and growth.

To find out more about the Silhouette Awards and how you can get involved as an entrant, mentor or sponsor for the 2023-2024 awards programme, contact [email protected]. 

The next edition of the Silhouette Awards will open for entries in September 2023.

The Silhouette Awards is a collaboration between Archifos and Parrot PR and Marketing.