Kale Group’s Reptile Collection, designed by Parsons-trained Turkish product designer Can Yalman, has won an award from the Annual Design Review, which is regarded as the Oscar of the design world.

This award, instated by US’s leading magazine ID Design, brings the number of awards won by the Reptile Collection for the period 2006/2007 to a total of three. The design was created for Kale Group’s leading market brand Çanakkale Kalebodur & Seramik.
“Reptile Collection combines 3D technology and ceramic,” says a spokesman for the Kale Group, Turkey’s largest tile manufacturer.
The Annual Design Review, which includes participants from nine countries, was divided into eight categories – consumer products, graphics, packaging, environments, furniture, equipment, and concepts and interactive. In each and every category, the jurors choose entries that merit the “Best of the Category”, “Design Excellence” and “Honorable Mansion” award.
Reptile Collection won the award in the furniture category, which was reviewed by renowned jurors Dave Alhadeff, John Dunnigan and Matilda McQuaid.
Dunnigan called the products “refreshingly unpretentious” and said, “the more appealing references the piece had, the more we appreciated it”.
Inspired by nature, the collection consists of two series – Snake and Crocodile. Each diamond-shaped snake piece has a moulded central ridge, and each crocodile square a high rim; the colours and finishes are based on reptilian pelt variations.
“Reptile Collection has trendy characteristics with its design and technology,” says the spokesman. “It brings a new dimension to tile by modular cladding of square tiles. Reptile lives up to its promises of functionality, transformability, durability and recyclability.
Produced in the second half of 2006, the Reptile Collection had earlier secured the ETMK Winners by Design (Tasarimla Kazananlar Odulu) and the Elle Decor International EDIDA awards.