The Nords (new collective term by me) have done it again. This is the third year in a row that Muuto have hosted the annual design competition for Nordic design students. This year’s has been the biggest yet with over 400 entrants from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland, the Muuto judging board had their work cut out for them. All categories from furniture, lighting and accessories were submitted. Having judged my first product design competition recently, I can only sympathise with the judges’ task. However, a winner was picked, hurrah!, as were two runners up. The 1st prize went to David Geckeler from the Royal Danish Design School for his sleek little number ‘Nerd Chair’ (2nd prize: Caroline Olsson, Akershus University, Norway – Bambi Table; 3rd prize: Marte Straalberg, Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway – Sprinkle Lamp). The Nerd chair is a soft-edged design made from a simplistic two pieces of thin curved wood, slotted together on four smooth pole legs. Available in plain wood, obviously, and a range of subtle and bold colours, spanning from black and secondary colours all the way over to pretty pastels. At least one there to please everyone. I look forward to seeing what comes next from Mr Geckeler.
