Introducing the AXOR Emerging Talent Design Competition: In Conversation with Hansgrohe’s Emma Freeman
As part of Hansgrohe’s dynamic presence at Clerkenwell Design Week 2025, the brand has reaffirmed its commitment to nurturing the next generation of interior designers through the AXOR Emerging Talent Design Competition. In this exclusive Design Insider interview, we speak with Emma Freeman, Brand and Communications Manager at Hansgrohe UK, about the brand’s role in championing design excellence, supporting emerging creatives, and bridging the gap between education and commercial practice.
Known for its innovation and performance across both the hansgrohe and AXOR brands, Hansgrohe is uniquely placed to offer students and recent graduates valuable industry insight, mentorship, and career-defining opportunities.
In our conversation with Emma, we explore why the AXOR Emerging Talent Design Competition was created and how it has evolved since its launch. We also discuss the inspiration behind this year’s luxury hotel bathroom brief, and uncover what students can gain by engaging directly with industry professionals through initiatives like this. Read on for Emma’s perspective on how design competitions can shape the future of our sector.
Emma Freeman, Brand and Communications Manager at Hansgrohe UK
To start, could you introduce yourself and tell us about your role at Hansgrohe, and how your background connects to supporting design excellence and emerging talent?
I’m Emma Freeman, Brand and Communications Manager at Hansgrohe UK. My role is wide-reaching, as I look after our commercial projects team as well as being responsible for driving brand and marketing strategies across the full communications spectrum including marketing, PR, social media, and stakeholder engagement.
Across the commercial projects team, we work with designers and architects to specify AXOR and hansgrohe products that enhance and deliver the aims of the development in hand – from luxury hotels to stunning apartments.
I have previously worked in the luxury fashion and beauty sector. It’s quite incredible to see how young talent in this industry has similarities with emerging designers in the bathroom and kitchen sector. Their fresh thinking, unique perspectives and approaches to problem-solving are just some of the reasons why I think nurturing the next generation is so important.
Hansgrohe is known globally for its leadership in bathroom innovation, offering high-performance, design-led products through both the AXOR and hansgrohe brands. For those less familiar, could you explain the distinction between the two brands and share why AXOR is choosing to focus this emerging talent initiative on UK interior design students?
Our hansgrohe products tend to be driven by innovative technology and expert engineering that deliver memorable experiences with water – for example unique water delivery through our different spray types, water reducing technology, creating products from recycled materials and furniture that fits together seamlessly. We work with our in-house designers at PHEONIX to ensure that this technology is married together with designs that consumers demand – creating a perfect harmony of form and function.
AXOR is very much led with looking at how design can also help move the dial on both aesthetic and function, and we’re rightly proud of our partnerships with leading names in the design industry. Many of the designers AXOR works with – such as Phillipe Starck or Barber Osgerby are not solely bathroom designers. They encourage us to go outside the norm – often bringing forward designs that require us to think differently about the inner workings of a tap or a shower, in order to realise their vision.
AXOR is a luxury brand and memorable and recognisable design runs through our ranges. Yet, we also pride ourselves on allowing customers to take this even further and provide end-users with products that are unique to them. Customers can opt to have their initials or family crest engraved onto their AXOR shower control or towel hook for instance, or even have precious gemstones inserted into our basin mixer handles – the sky is the limit when it comes to AXOR.
How do you see Hansgrohe’s role in bridging the gap between design education and commercial practice—particularly in areas like innovation, luxury, and client expectation?
The bathroom design industry is fast-paced and consumer-led. We are always looking to strike a balance, particularly within commercial projects, of achieving the aesthetics that consumers demand whilst delivering excellent service, quality product and healthy profit margins for our customers within the architecture and design industry. This is where developing new talent is crucial, as they bring forward fresh thinking, new ideas and ways to solve design challenges that might not have been explored before.
What inspired the launch of the AXOR Emerging Talent Design Competition, and how does it reflect Hansgrohe’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of interior designers?
I know there is some exceptional design talent coming out of the UK, but we cannot ignore the fact that it is a highly competitive industry. We launched the competition in 2024 as a way to connect AXOR with new design talent and provide emerging designers with a way to get their designs in front of industry experts.
Through AXOR we are honoured to work with leading designers around the world to create individual bathroom spaces and next generation products. It’s therefore vital that we preserve this way of working, by supporting and spotlighting new interior design talent. They are the future of the industry and as a design-led brand we share in the responsibility of fostering their talent and giving them the tools to apply this to real-life project briefs.
With the 2025 competition now underway, can you share a bit more about the brief, the opportunity it offers, and what excites you about this year’s entries?
This year’s brief is very reflective of AXOR and the ethos of quiet luxury and escapism. It challenges designers to design a hotel room bathroom concept – no larger than 15m2 x 20m2 that embodies the idea of bathroom representing a place of relaxation, a cocoon from the rest of the world.
Luxury hotels by definition provide retreats from our busy lives – and from our perspective the bathroom is the ultimate space for retreat and escapism. You can see in our recent commercial projects with AXOR – working with The Reeds and South Lodge Spa, for example – that luxury escapism is exactly what hotel developers are looking for in order to stand out in their industry.
We’re therefore incredibly curious and excited to see how emerging designers approach this brief and push boundaries to highlight the future of escapism in the bathroom.
What kind of impact did the inaugural 2024 competition have—from the quality of submissions to the response from within the design industry?
It sounds cliché but we were genuinely blown away by the quality of submissions received in 2024. The inaugural competition was something new for us, and we truly didn’t know how it would land with design students and recently graduated designers. But they approached the brief with passion and enthusiasm, delivering some really exciting designs that embraced the brief of personal luxury.
The winning design by Martin Nealon was inspired by luxury yachts and the judges were really impressed by his combination of fabric, colourways, and AXOR range choices which perfectly complemented the marine led concept. It felt like a heartfelt embrace, reflected by the warm metallics he had selected for the brassware and taupe textiles for the room décor.
In your view, what do students gain from participating in industry-led initiatives like this that they might not typically encounter in an academic environment?
It’s all about application – with competitions like this we are setting them a real design test that they would likely face in their future working careers. They can take everything they have learned and apply this to the kind of project brief they will likely face during their working careers. What’s more, they have the chance to get their designs in front of experts who are leading the way in terms of bathroom design, and that’s a really valuable opportunity in such a competitive industry.
You’ve created some truly exciting prizes this year, including a trip to Schiltach and access to the Festival of Hospitality. What kind of experiences do you hope these rewards offer students beyond recognition?
We had a great response to the competition in 2024, and when we were developing plans for 2025, we were keen to provide a prize that would also give the winner a boost in their careers.
Supporting these emerging designers is ultimately what this competition is about. This is why we chose to launch the 2025 brief at Clerkenwell Design Week, with a special event and career clinic for design students.
The winner submitting the most inspiring creative response to the brief this year will receive an exclusive and sought after trip to the AXOR Centre for Excellence in Schiltach, in the heart of the Black Forest, Germany with AXOR, alongside a year’s pass to the Festival of Hospitality.
Alongside experiencing the environment that makes AXOR a leading luxury brand, the winner will learn about the design process behind the products and experience the showers in action. It will be invaluable experience for their design career – as they’ll get to experience first-hand how AXOR can help elevate their design vision and deliver the wow factor for their future clients.
We will also be announcing the winner of this year’s competition on our Hansgrohe stand at the Hospitality Interiors (HIX) event in London on 26th and 27th November. This is another high-profile industry event for the hotel design industry, so we hope it gives the winner another opportunity to spotlight themselves and get their name out there.
Finally, how do you hope to see Hansgrohe’s engagement with emerging talent evolve in the years ahead? Are there long-term ambitions for the AXOR Emerging Talent initiative?
It’s so important that we continue to support and celebrate the next generation of interior designers. There are many talented and creative designers among us, and we look forward to seeing how they shape the future of luxury interior design in the years to come.
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