Design Forum Finland winners

The winners of the Design Forum Finland Young Designer 2007 award have been announced.

Shoe designer Julia Lundsten and industrial designer Janne Kyttänen will share this year’s €5000 (£3500) Design Forum Finland Young Designer prize.

Both designers trained and worked outside Finland – Lundsten in London, where she studied at the Royal College of Art before establishing her shoe company Finsk. Janne Kyttänen studied in Barcelona and Amsterdam, investigating rapid prototyping, in which his company Freedom of Design now specialises. Kyttänen has already won a Red Dot award and a 100% Design award for his work.

‘Lundsten and Kyttänen are among the best examples of young Finnish designers working internationally,’ Design Forum Finland said in a statement. ‘Their work expresses the best traditions of Finnish design – clarity and pure lines with a light, playful touch,’

The award was judged by Finnish Design Museum curator Jukka Savolainen and Design Forum Finland chief executive officer Mikko Kalhama.

An exhibition of the entries to this year’s competition runs at Design Forum Finland in Helsinki until 4 November.