Hanna Anonen – FI
Hanna Anonen comes from Helsinki and works with both product design and interior design. She is intrigued by different materials and their feel. Aesthetics and harmonious proportions also take a central role in her work. She looks for a persona, quality and perfection in a product. Her ultimate goal is to evoke feelings through her work. She loves challenges, and finds they motivate her the most. The composition of materials and colors – their interplay is an endless source of inspiration.

The jury’s statement: The jury liked Hanna’s tactile expression and distinct design. With her knowledge of handicraft and materials, she is able to successfully transform surface into volume.Head and hand work together in a playful, rhythmic manner with undulating variations. Hanna Anonen shows that she has mastered her design expression down to the most miniscule detail.

Maria Bruun – DK
Maria Bruun is based in Copenhagen. She primarily works with product and exhibition design. Her work crosses the borders of different genres and she loves the freedom and flexibility that this entails. Her primary and preferred material is wood, but often it is in combination with metals such as steel or brass. One of her main focuses is to disseminate the inherent qualities of the materials in a subtle way. Right now one of her primary sources of inspiration is sculptures and objects with no or minimal function. She is fascinated by the idea of creating form before function and thereafter reversing the process to give the fuction to the form.

The jury’s statement: Scandinavian design needs to explore new areas, and Maria Bruun successfully does exactly that. She has helped Scandinavian design take a huge step forward. Her designs have unexpected and exciting proportions. The objects are elegantly composed, and details and materials are thoughtfully arranged.

Matilda Dominique – SE
Matilda Dominique is a textile designer based out of Stockholm. She uses weaving as her primary tool for creating architectural textiles. Her design is a mix of lines, geometry, movement and three-dimensional shapes. Her work often starts with the material and the technique. She collects light and shadow play, shapes, structures and patterns that she sees in her surroundings. The actual weaving itself is also a large source of inspiration. She finds it inspirational to work within a field like weaving, where tools and principles have more or less stayed the same for thousands of years, but there is still a lot to discover.

The jury’s statement: Matilda Dominique weaves works of art with technical skill, a sense for textiles and enormous patience.
She directs the yarn with exact precision and gets every individual fiber to communicate. Her weaving and braiding technique enables her to construct advanced three-dimensional structures that have a seamless design and a strong architectural expression. 

Maija Puoskari – FI
Maija Puoskari is a product designer based out of Helsinki. As a designer, she would like to make the everyday life a bit more meaningful – joyful, easier and more functional. For her, it is important for there to be a new idea or fresh thinking behind every idea. She hopes that her design will last for a long time, and therefore quality is a very important aspect to her work. She is interested in all areas of design as well as exhibition projects. Nature, daily life and folklore have been some of the largest sources of inspiration for her work.

The jury’s statement: In Maija’s work, the jury saw two forms of expression, each of which conveyed a completely different feel. Despite this contrast, they complement each other perfectly.
The contrast between the controlled and the wild, the functional and the emotional and the constructed and the naturally beautiful merge perfectly to create a pure form with an excellent Finnish touch.

Nick Ross – SE
Nick Ross was born in Scotland and has been based out of Stockholm since 2010. His work looks at the role of history and storytelling in how we perceive the world around us. He does this by working with themes such as place, origin, and the role fiction plays in past and present societies. His primary interest lies in how guesswork or cultural ‘curation’ can create situations where we are influenced to think in certain ways and feel certain things. From a purely esthetic point of view, he likes the friction between the elegant and the brutal.

The jury’s statement: Nick works methodically with material, form and an infallible feeling for design. His volumes are well-balanced and the touch is personal, often with a humorist twist and historical reference, and he also challenges traditional aesthetic and economic values with a liberating lack of respect.

Honorable Mention:
Kristina Schultz
The jury would like to shine the spotlight on an idea that we think is both brilliant and thought-provoking.
Kristina Schultz decided to empty her home and make all of the objects she and her family needed by hand. She began to reflect over our everyday needs, but she also realized that her lack of craftsmanship skills made it difficult to meet these needs. Here, theory is tested by practical skills.We are now eagerly waiting to find out where her journey will lead her.

The 2016 jury consists of journalist and writer Lotta Lewenhaupt, professor in design history Kerstin Wickman, Ewa Kumlin, CEO at Svensk Form, and Anders Färdig, founder and CEO of Design House Stockholm. The guest jury member for 2016 is Johannes Karlström from Note Design Studio.

The award includes an exhibition at this spring’s Formex as well as SEK 50,000 for a sponsored activity. The nominees will each receive a unique diploma that has been designed this year by SiggaRún from Iceland, www.siggarune.com. The award will be presented in the evening on Wednesday, August 24, in conjunction with the opening of Formex.
Partners are Trendgruppen PR, Spendrups Bryggeri and Haymarket by Scandic.

The nominees for Formex Nova were selected in collaboration with Iceland Design Centre, Design Forum Finland and Klubben (Norwegian Designers Union).