Gemona West Design clinches Africa best office space award
Gemona West Design Studio has won the Best Office Space in Africa Award with its Pernod Ricard Nigeria office design at International Property Awards 2020/2021.
The international property awards is a 27-year-old event that celebrates the highest levels of achievement by companies operating in all sectors of the interior design and architecture industry with over 45 different residential and commercial categories.
Speaking on the award, the creative director, Deise Forgiarini said, “This award goes to prove that Nigeria is on the right track when it comes to design and we are proud to represent Africa and bring more focus on the interior design industry in Africa.”
She added that this was a milestone the company deeply hoped to achieve and such a huge honour for the company and herself.
It has been a learning curve, which has been extremely rewarding, she said, adding that the company’s long-term goal is to make a difference in the design industry, and show that the African design community is achieving the same benchmarks as international standards.
“When we created the winning design, we wanted to tell our design stories from the perspective of the human need to creative a conducive environment to be in,” Forgiarini explained.
She expressed her gratitude to the community they are in, their clients and the people they work with.
“Collaboration is a reflection of the evolution in the interior design industry. This is essential both within and outside the company. When all professionals within our industry are all working as a team, the clients get the best results.
“Customer satisfaction has always been one of our top priorities and our belief is that when the client is happy, all the professionals involved in that project are happy.”
The highly talented women, Deise Forgiarini Smith, the creative director and Naomi Smith, the commercial director, founded Gemona West Design Studio in 2015. The company was born from Naomi’s love for furniture and fixtures and Deise’s passion for interior design.
In 2015, the company participated in the first Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme and began operations and in 2017, they got their first big project; the E-Tranzact project, which recorded success at the African Property Awards in 2018.