It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
Studio Gorm was founded in 2007 by John Arndt and Wonhee Jeong Arndt.
As professors in the Product Design department at the University of Oregon, they apply their insightful academic research on culture, history and technology to refocus modern design through the prism of time, exploring the transformation of objects and ideas as they evolve to fit the demands and expectations of modern life.
As designers of functional objects, they draw from their background in sculpture and craft to create works that balance function and aesthetics. Their methods are deeply rooted in the act of physical making where an object’s true form evolves out of an experimental constructive approach to design.
Thom Fougere Studio was founded in the fall of 2015 in Winnipeg, Canada. The studio works within various fields of art and design, but with a focus on furniture and products for the home. All projects are characterized by careful research into materiality, history, aesthetics, and functionality. The studio offers full creative direction, furniture and interior design services.
Thom Fougere (1987) studied architecture at the University of Manitoba before working in furniture and product design. In 2011, after his studies in Architecture, he was appointed Creative Director of Canadian furniture design house EQ3 at the age of 24. There he initiated a rebranding of the company including a transformation of the product line, graphic design, photography, interiors and the architectural design of stores. Thom Fougere continues to investigate how we live and interact with objects in our homes, creating pieces that are both subtle and archetypal in form. His works have been shown internationally at the design fairs in Milan, Stockholm, New York, and Toronto.
Chris Liljenberg Halstrøm was born 1977 and lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Halstrøm mainly works with furniture and smaller objects for the home always taking a starting point in everyday situations. She finds it interesting to work with familiarity and neutrality as topics in order to create new expressions and purposes for objects. This applies whether working with companies such as Skagerak, Frama and +Halle or with objects for exhibitions. In 2017 she received the Three Year Work grant from The Danish Arts forundation / Statens Kunstfond.
She established her own studio in 2007 after graduating from The Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen with prior studies in Stockholm, Sweden and Berlin, Germany.
In addition to running her own studio, Halstrøm is part of the duo INCLUDED MIDDLE with textile designer Margrethe Odgaard. Together, they design furniture and objects from the two simple questions; what if colour and pattern are seen as something suggesting form and what if form is seen as something suggesting pattern.
Christopher Specce is a designer and teacher working in Providence, Rhode Island. His practice spans from commercially oriented product design to creating experimental, one a kind of objects. In addition to serving as associate professor in the Department of Furniture Design at Rhode Island School of Design, his professional experiences include projects across the furniture and consumer product industries. Prior to joining the full-time faculty at RISD, he was lead designer at the consultancy Observatory, where he contributed to projects for clients including Herman Miller and P&G.
With a belief that designed objects make an important contribution to culture, he explores the various ways that designers can embed objects with meaning. His studio practice features extensive use of digital design and fabrication tools alongside hands-on work with materials to create works that are at once mundane, delightful, modest, and forthright.
Jamie Wolfond is a Canadian designer based in Toronto and New York. Jamie's work explores the ways in which manufacturing can influence the design process. Often centered around one material or production method, the objects Jamie designs expose new applications for pre-existing manufacturing techniques.
In 2014, Jamie Wolfond founded Good Thing, the New York and Toronto based manufacturer of furniture, lighting and everyday objects.