Industrial Design Junior, Isabella Raffo Pedraza, Receives First Place in the Dudley Moore Sr. Furniture Design Competition
March 13, 2026
Isabella Raffo Pedraza of the University of Illinois has taken first place in the Dudley Moore Sr. Furniture Design Competition, earning a $5,000 prize and an all-expenses-paid three-day trip to High Point, North Carolina, for a curated tour of furniture factories and design studios.
Judges praised the originality of her “floating back” concept and noted how the soft radius of the arms perfectly complemented the seat. In recognition of the achievement, the University of Illinois School of Art + Design will also receive a $1,000 award.
The competition’s press release has been featured in major industry publications including Furniture Today, Design News Now, Home Furnishings Business, Home Accents Today, and Furniture World Magazine.
The winning project was developed as part of Professor CoCo Ree Lemery’s Junior Industrial Design Studio in collaboration with the renowned Spanish furniture brand Andreu World. Students were challenged to design seating concepts and build scale models, which were later exhibited in Spain with international shipping supported by the company.
Project deliverables were carefully structured so that students could also submit their work to the Bienstock Furniture Library, with each design emphasizing manufacturability and market readiness.
This marks the first time the Dudley Moore Sr. Furniture Design Competition has been won by the University of Illinois or any Big Ten school. Members of the award committee noted they were particularly impressed by the level of talent and the strong understanding of manufacturability demonstrated in the UIUC submissions.
“Building the physical model was one of the most valuable parts of designing Nilo,” said Pedraza. “It helped me understand how manufacturable the chair actually was in a way 3D renders could not. Prototyping pushed the project toward more practical, well-considered decisions and ultimately made the chair stronger and more refined.”
