And the nominees for the 2012 Nova Design Award are…

On 16 August, designer Monika Förster will present this year’s Nordic designer of the year with the Nova Design Award at the Formex design get-together at PUB. Among other honours, the winner will be given the opportunity to exhibit their works at this spring’s Formex design fair and at the Gallery Pascale, and will have them featured in an article in magazine Plaza Interiör. All nominees will also receive a diploma designed by Kyuhyung Cho, artist and graphic designer from South Korea.

“The nominees this year represent both their own countries and their own individuality as designers in very distinctive ways, and I am very proud of the high quality they all demonstrate in their work. We truly have a genuine Nordic mix competing for the award this year,” says Chicie Lindgren, Project Manager at Formex.

Nova Design Prize is awarded to this year's Nordic designers of Formex in cooperation with the magazine Plaza Interiör.

The nominees for the Nova Design Award 2012 are:

Norway: Siren Elise Wilhelmsen

Siren Elise is an industrial designer and graduate of the Berlin University of the Arts. Siren’s work strives to unite interactivity and function, and has already been exhibited at several museums and manufacturers around the world.

Siren Elise Wilhelmsen has been nominated for her conceptual and imaginative design, in which she challenges both the object’s functions and its traditional forms. She finds new solutions and demonstrates her breadth in everything from innovation to playful salt and pepper shakers.

Finland: Mari Isopahkala

Mari is a freelance designer from Helsinki whose expansive work moves freely between furniture, jewellery, candles and interior design. Common for all of her products, however, is that each emanates from her desire to tell a story about the object and to evoke feelings and reactions in the viewer.

Mari Isopahkala has been nominated for her sophisticated jewellery, beautiful home furnishing textiles and exciting glass objects. In a sculpturally interesting and imaginative way, she succeeds in stretching the strong Finnish design tradition to new expressions.

Denmark: Christina Liljenberg Halström

Christina began her design studies in Stockholm and then took her degree at The Royal Danish Academy, School of Design in 2007. She now lives and works in Copenhagen.

Christina Liljenberg Halström has been nominated for her exquisite craftsmanship and her sophisticated meetings of materials. She has an unerring sense of proportions and dimensions, and her products bear a clear connection to traditional Danish furniture design while exhibiting a distinct charm and elegance that feels new.

Sweden: Karin Wallenbeck

Karin graduated from the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design with a degree in industrial design in 2011. She is a member of design group WHATSWHAT and part of furniture company SNICKERIET. She is also involved in exploring the role, significance and power of the image in the world of design in contemporary Internet culture, and lectures on the subject at Konstfack.

Karin Wallenbeck has been nominated for the extensive craftsmanship skills she developed in a series of sophisticated products in wood. She has also, by starting the company Snickeriet, demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit that bodes well for the future – a design talent that creates its own channels to the audience.

Sweden: Tove Thambert

Tove has an MA in Industrial Design from Konstfack and has also studied design and fashion at Parsons School of Design in New York. Her design moves in the borderlands between industrial design, fashion and craft.

Tove Thambert has been nominated for her innovation surrounding the role of the object in our lives. By giving her design multiple characteristics and tasks, she simplifies our everyday lives – and does so with humour, an interesting aesthetic and great esprit.

For more information, please visit www.formex.se or contact:

Ida Mlowe, Press Coordinator, ida.mlowe@stockholmsmassan.se , phone +46 8 749 44 13

Formex will be held from 16-19 August 2012 at Stockholmsmässan. Formex is the meeting place for news, business opportunities, trends, knowledge and inspiration. The design fair is held twice a year, attracting more than 850 exhibitors, 25,000 trade visitors and 850 media representatives.