Formex Nova award – nominees appointed

Formex has established the Formex Nova award – Nordic Designer of the Year, to promote high quality Nordic design created by a still relatively unknown designer working in the Nordic interior design industry. A jury appoints the nominees for the award. The winner will be presented August 18.

The Nominees for Formex Nova 2020:

Jan Klingler, Sweden
Jan Klingler, industrial designer, received his BFA in 2016 in Industrial Design at Faculty of Design in Hildesheim and his Master’s Degree and 2018 at Konstfack University in Stockholm. His interdisciplinary approach has led him to freelance work as well as a research assistant at the laboratory for Clinical Microbiology at Karolinska University Hospital.
The jury’s motivation:
“Designer who finds inspiration in the most unexpected of places. He combines industrial design and microbiology into innovative design that highlights a highly personalized content: bacteria.”

Stine Mikkelsen, Denmark
Stine Mikkelsen is a textile designer with BA and MA, from Kolding School of Design, Denmark. She also has MA in Knitted Textiles from Royal College of Art, London, UK and MA Contextual Design from Design Academy Eindhoven, The Netherlands. During 2019 she exhibited at Crossovers, Adorno, London Design Fair, UK Collectible Design Fair, Belgium Now Nordic and The Art of Sitting, TOOLSGALERIE, Paris, France.
The jury’s motivation:
“Design with interesting combination of materials in luminaires, smaller objects, textile design, sculptures or mural works. Design that makes you wonder how it was made, from what and how it is used.”

Sigve Knutson, Norway
Sigve Knutson is an experimental designer based in Oslo. He obtained an MA in Contextual Design at Design Academy Eindhoven in 2016. Since then he has exhibited internationally in Beirut, Milan, New York, Paris, Antwerp and Copenhagen. Motivated by fascination for the intuitive and playful rather than the smoothened and planned.
The jury’s motivation:
“A designer who works in between art and design. His approach is playful and improvisational, more focusing on process than on precise results. Fascinated by random process and the intuitive rather than the calculated.”

Valdís Steinarsdóttir, Iceland
Valdís Steinarsdóttir graduated from Iceland University of the Arts in 2017 specializing in product design. She works in Iceland as an independent designer, mainly focusing on material experiments by recycling organic matter. Valdís was nominated for the Icelandic Presidential Innovation Award, an award-winning project in Paris Design Forum.
The jury’s motivation:
“Design that focuses on material experiments and finding unique solutions to social and environmental issues. Through her projects, she wants to have an open discussion with the audience about social changes through design.”

Jukka Jokinen and Heikki Konu, Finland
Jukka Jokinen and Heikki Konu, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Two Helsinki based industrial designers, driven by experimental and material oriented design methods, the duo believes in the power of teamwork, while they have gained attention together and individually in Helsinki 5G contest, Dubai Design Week and Habitare Design Competition.
The jury’s motivation:
“The minimal and clear aesthetics of the series implifies the design principles and mindset of Nordic design.This duo developed a new kind of glass blowing technique with a modular mould that can implement countless of different objects for different use. The possibilities are endless.”

This year’s jury:
Mats Widbom, CEO Svensk Form
Klara Persson, Design Sweden
Laila Alanen, Design Forum Finland
Halla Helgadóttir, Managing Director Iceland Design Centre
Erik Rimmer, Editor-in-chief BO BEDRE Danmark & Norge
Cecilie Molvær Jørgensen, Editor-in-Chief Bo Bedre Norway

Senior Advisory Board:
Lotta Lewenhaupt, Journalist and writer
Kerstin Wickman, Professor in Design History
Anders Färdig Founder and CEO, Design House Stockholm

For more information, please contact:
Lotta Ahlvar, operativ projektledare, +46 8 749 41 52, lotta.ahlvar@stockholmsmassan.se