Congratulations are in order for Valdís Steinarsdóttir, who was recently named Nordic Designer of the Year at Formex Nova 2020! Formex Nova is an annual award ceremony that celebrates and highlights young design talent working in the Nordic region. This year marks the award’s tenth anniversary.
An Icelandic designer specializing in product design, Valdís Steinarsdóttir earned this honor for her work with recycled natural materials. Together with a team of researchers, she developed two new materials: Bioplastic Skin and Just Bones, which debuted at DesignMarch 2020 in June. Explaining their motivation for granting Valdís with the award, the Formex Nova jury cited her ambition to find unique solutions to social and environmental problems. The jury highlighted how in her projects, Valdís, “wants to have an open discussion with the audience about social changes through design.”
In an interview with Formex Nova, Valdís described how honored and excited she was to receive this prestigious award. Discussing her design process, she explained, “For me, an object becomes beautiful when I know the story behind it and there is a deeper inherent meaning. And I think the manufacturing process is beautiful. I do not think it is wrong if someone strives to do something just for aesthetic reasons, but I myself want to take advantage of the fact that we designers have as much influence as we have in society. We are, in a way, storytellers, who, in an understandable way, can point out various societal problems.” Join us in congratulating Valdís Steinarsdóttir, and explore her incredible work in design here.
What do you think of this year’s Formex Nova 2020? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!
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