UK Cypriot Michael Anastassiades has been awarded an OBE in King Charles III’s New Year Honours list.

Michael recieved it for services to design.

Michael Anastassiades is a Cypriot-born, London-based designer whose practice encompasses product, spatial interventions and experimental works, often transcending the distinctions between different fields of creativity.

Anastassiades’ practice contemplates both industrial production and artisan techniques. In doing so, it expands into a vivid, nuanced balance between improvisation and structure, control and intuition.

With a career spanning more than 20 years, Anastassiades has conceived lights, furniture and objects characterised by a poetic yet rigorous interpretation of technology, materials and functions.

His work draws inspiration from many sources, which he distills into pure, simple structures. From nature to archaic references of his native Cyprus, the history of Modernism, very personal memories, art and everyday life, he transforms a rich set of diverse references into a timeless vocabulary of form and structure.

The Michael Anastassiades Studio has collaborated with various manufacturers, including Flos, B&B Italia, Herman Miller, Cassina, Molteni, Bang & Olufsen, Puiforcat, Fratelli Fantini, Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, Roda, Lobmeyr, Salvatori, Svenskt Tenn, Carl Auböck and Sigmar London, Coedition and SCP. The Studio has also designed limited-edition collections for Nilufar Gallery in Milan, Dansk Møbelkunst Gallery in Copenhagen and Taka Ishii Gallery in Japan.

We are proud to announce that Kick It Out Head of Player Engagement Troy Townsend has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list for services to tackling discrimination and/or promoting inclusion in football.
Troy is married to UK Cypriot Nina and is the father of Luton Town and England international Andros Townsend.
Troy is the longest-serving member of Kick It Out and to many, he is Mr Kick It Out. He has contributed massively to calling out discrimination, leading the discussion for change and providing support and education to thousands of footballers up and down the land.

After 11 years with Kick It Out, no one has travelled more miles for the organisation, both in a physical and metaphorical sense. His willingness to tackle some of football’s biggest challenges, his dedication to putting player welfare at the forefront of his work and his honest and authentic voice means he is cherished by players, managers and fans alike. And his continued drive to educate the next generation through workshops across the country, and his creation of Kick It Out’s Raise Your Game programme to provide youngsters with career opportunities in the football industry means his legacy will continue for decades.

Troy has been selfless in the way he has tackled discrimination and promoted inclusion in football, which many would find difficult to maintain. But his commitment has never wavered, and his winning smile will continue to provide light where there is often shade.