The jury 2024

"Jonas Wagell is a Swedish architect and designer born in 1973. The studio JWDA was founded in 2008 and is today located in a converted car repair shop in central Stockholm, but collaborations span far from Scandinavia to Italy, Asia and North America.

Wagell’s architecture work is perhaps most known for the innovative prefab house concept Mini House (2007-2012), early recognized by Wallpaper Magazine which named him one of the “world’s 50 hottest young architects” shortly after graduation from Konstfack in Stockholm in 2007. Today the work is primarily focused on product and furniture design, but on occasion the studio has also consulted with art and design direction.

The Swedish native’s design has been described as minimal with soft and friendly shapes. At an early age Jonas was introduced to design through an interest in graphics, print and typography and perhaps this has influenced today’s work with simplistic and clear, but expressive design language.

Today the studio’s design collaborations include Danish companies such as Menu, Normann Copenhagen, Paper Collective and most recently Wendelbo, but also Tacchini in Italy, Ercol and Allermuir in the UK, Design Within Reach in the US and Ago Lighting in South Korea, to name a few.

Jonas Wagell is trained in graphics, marketing and communication, furniture design and interior architecture at schools including Konstfack University College of Arts and Crafts and Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm, as well as Parsons School of Design in New York City. Wagell has a former career in strategic project management and communication.

Although the studio’s focus today is primarily on design rather than architecture, the passion remains multi-disciplinary and the approach diverse – from furniture and lighting to tableware and consumer accessories – as well as the occasional artwork. "

www.jonaswagell.se

www.instagram.com/jonaswagell

www.facebook.com/jonas.wagell

From Wageningen, Esther Jongsma met Breda-born Sam van Gurp while studying in Eindhoven. After graduation, Jongsma and van Gurp fused their shared interests together, co-founding a workshop in 2015 in Eindhoven’s industrial district-turned-creative breeding ground, Sectie C. Working under the moniker Vantot, the duo conceives projects inspired by industrial processes and technical developments, while making sure to ground the creations with a dose of humanised innovation. Electricity is a prevalent fixture in Jongsma and van Gurp’s designs, and aligns with the pair’s belief that the role of a designer is to connect past and present craftsmanship as well as different industries.

www.VANTOT.com

www.Instagram.com/vantot.studio

Marco Dessí, * 1976 in Meran, lives and works in Vienna. He studied Industrial Design at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna. Since the establishment of his own design studio in 2007, he has been responsible for many projects with a number of acclaimed Austrian companies, such as Lobmeyr or Wittmann Möbelwerkstätten and international companies Richard Lampert, Thonet , TECTA or La Manufacture from Paris .

In 2013, the MAK – Austrian Museum for Applied Arts, dedicated Dessí a show, called “still life”.

Dessí’s approach is practical and cooperative, with design taken to be an interactive process. The projects that he initiates serve to experiment with materials and test processes that are then applied to commercial projects and/or developed further in the interest of industrial or hand-replication. His commissioned design work always begins with close study of the clients, their respective production methods and these methods’inherent potentials. Dessí’s studio is not committed to any particular style, preferred material or unified formula, but rather regards designing as a trade characterized by a deep understanding of materials, processes and how the two are linked. The way in which an object is produced has a direct influence over its aesthetic appearance and the story that it tells. At the moment when the beauty of the functional becomes apparent, when form and material come together conclusively, there, an interplay of function and emotion unfolds that renders the object convincing and hence attractive to us.

In his work, Dessí values transparency in terms of a consistent link between the process of designing and the actual conditions of production. The effort to create a perfectly designed object manifests itself in an uncompromising unity of function, construction, and aesthetics; the logic of assembly and disassembly, as well as precise relations of form and dimension, are just as relevant as are intelligent combinations of materials and a well-considered, detailed concept.

studiodessi.com/

instagram.com/studiodessi/

Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay founded the design studio Raw-Edges after graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2007. Colours, pattern making and movement are some of the primary factors behind their design approach, as is curiosity—as their o?cial description puts it, "The studio became...a place where they could embark on a continuous journey of discovery, turning the world upside down and inside out, cracking things open and studying their structure , always striving for surprise, wonder, humour."

Through their work, they seek out new discoveries, manipulating the things around them to ?nd new and fascinating things. Raw Edges’ witty and inventive approach has led to great collaborations with international companies including : Vitra, Louis Vuitton, Stella McCartney, Airbnb, Established & Sons, Moroso, Cappellini, Kvadrat, Mutina, Golran and Caesarstone.

Following their work, the studio awarded Designers of the Future by Design Miami/ Basel, Elle Deco interna?tional Edida Award, Wallpaper Design Award, iF Design Award, and other prestigious awards for their work. They have also been nominated several times for the Designs of the Year Award at the London Design Museum, and just recently awarded 2020 Designers of the Year by the AW Magazin in Germany.

Their designs were acquired for the permanent collections at international museums, including the MoMA in New-York.

https://www.raw-edges.com/

https://www.instagram.com/rawedgesdesignstudio/

Born in Vigo, Spain, Tomás Alonso has been travelling since the age of 19 to pursue his career as a designer. He has been living, studying and working in the USA, Italy and Australia before moving to London to complete a MA at the Royal College of Art.

In 2007 he set up his own design practice, based in North East London.

The studio works in furniture, product, lighting, interior and exhibition design and its clients range from international producers to selected design galleries and museums.

He is also a co-founder of the design collective OKAYstudio, which he started with 5 other graduates from the RCA and has been a platform for creative exchange for its members since 2006.

His work has been widely published and exhibited around the world; from the Design Museum or Aram gallery in London to galleries and exhibitions in Italy, Spain, France, USA, Canada or Japan. Amongst other awards he has received the Swarovski Designer of the Future Award 2015 by Design Miami, Designer of the Year 2013 by AD magazine in Spain, Young Designer of the Year by Elle Deco Japan in 2012 or Elle Deco Spain in 2011 to name a few.

He combines his research and commercial design work with academic activities, mainly as a visiting lecturer for the product design Master at ÉCAL in Lausanne (Switzerland), which he has helped stablish since its start in 2010, as well as occasional workshops around the world.

http://www.tomas-alonso.com/

Twitter - TomasAlonsoLDN