Michael Anastassiades: engineer at Imperial, designer at the RCA, Royal Designer for Industry

London built him in layers: a civil engineering degree at Imperial College, a Royal College of Art master's in industrial design, a studio founded in 1994 that still works from the city — and the Royal Designer for Industry title from the RSA to seal it. Cypriot-born Michael Anastassiades makes everything artisanally, in natural finishes without protective lacquers; Flos, B&B Italia, Herman Miller and SCP produce the results, and the V&A and Crafts Council keep them.

On La Mercanti his hand arrives twice: in Mutina's authored ceramics and in the Fantini taps we distribute — British restraint, Italian manufacture.