YOUNG DESIGNER OF THE YEAR 2010:
Imu and Aivan!
Imu
Imu is a designer-led exhibition organization founded in 2002 that playfully calls itself "Finland's national design team". Its aim has been to provide on a joint basis contacts for young designers vis-à-vis companies and the public, thus assisting the transition from design student to independent professional. Imu's exhibitions in London (2002), Milan (2003), New York (2004) and Helsinki (2005) have provided alternative overviews of Finnish design in the 2000s. At present, Imu arranges the annual Protoshop event of the Habitare Fair in association with the Finnish Fair Corporation. This event is meant to bring together interesting designers, new ideas and broad-minded companies, and to support related collaboration.
Imu's exhibitions have presented the work of over forty designers, reflecting an open-minded approach and a critical attitude to established practices. The work of Imu is coordinated by three Helsinki-based designers: Elina Aalto, Krista Kosonen and Saara Renvall.
Aivan!
Aivan! is a design studio organized as a company, with Jarkko Jämsén (born 1975), Antti Mäkelä (born 1980), Mikael Silvanto (born 1980) and Saku Sysiö (born 1980) as its partners. Four different, forthright individuals of vision linked by friendship, understanding and shared goals, and professional skills obtained in the industrial design curriculum of the Lahti Institute of Design.
The partners of Aivan! are interesting personalities, each one of them different as individuals – representing bold seafaring, social adroitness, intense cosmopolitanism, style-conscious aestheticism and command of the classics of design. They have courageously and successfully steered their company into domestic and foreign design markets.