Known for her colourful and playful products, Hanna Anonen has received the Young Designer of the Year prize in 2021. Thanks to her strong identity as a designer, Anonen is paving the way for other young designers, states the prize jury.
DESIGNER HANNA ANONEN has received the Young Designer of the Year prize in 2021, awarded by Design Forum Finland. Anonen is a versatile designer whose portfolio covers a wide range from spatial and graphic design to interior decoration products, such as furniture and smaller items. The pieces are characterised by bright colours, unexpected ideas and playfulness.
“I really enjoy finding inspiration very much,” Anonen decribes her working process. “Being inspired is the creative part – not just rationally solving something and then performing the solution, but rather finding the solution through inspiration.”
When Hanna Anonen was still a student at Aalto University, her Ripsiraita floor mat made from wooden slats attracted attention at the Protoshop area of Habitare Fair in 2013, and even made it to the pages of Wallpaper. In 2017, Anonen and her Cocktail lamp came third in the FDS Award design competition, organized by Finnish Design Shop. The Plizé boxes, designed for Made by Choice, were launched at Stockholm Furniture Fair in 2020.
According to the prize jury, Anonen’s style is bold and unique and her expert skills have gained her assignments from many Finnish brands. These include, among others, Made by Choice, Hakola, Mifuko, Iittala and Terhi Pölkki. Hanna Anonen's works are reinventing the image of Finnish modern design and have received international attention. Thanks to her strong identity as a designer, Anonen is paving the way for other young designers, states the prize jury.
In 2020, Anonen curated the Pieces of Hope charity collection, which was made available to an international audience by Franckly, Finnish Design Shop's marketplace for pre-owned design. Anonen has also worked on exhibition design for Grafia Association of Finnish Visual Designers and the Design Museum, among other clients.
Design Forum Finland's Young Designer of the Year prize was established in 2000, and it has now been awarded for the 20th time. The prize includes a sum of 5,000 euros and participation in IF Studios, the artist-in-residence program of Institut finlandais (The Finnish Institute in France) in Paris.
Young Designer of the Year 2021 prize exhibition is open to the public at Galleria A2, Helsinki, 3–24 June 2021.
See also:
• All products designed by Hanna Anonen >
Editing: Design Stories Images: Elina Simonen, Aino Huhtaniemi and Suvi Kesäläinen