Ornamo Award ’26 recognises the societal impact of design

The Ornamo Award ’26 has been awarded to service designer Mariana Salgado and industrial designer Alex Fjällström. This year’s awards highlight design’s role in strengthening participation, sustainability and accessibility.

The Design Trailblazer Award goes to Mariana Salgado, who works with the European ICOS research infrastructure, helping make complex research data more understandable and useful for climate action and decision-making. Salgado combines service design with research and works with experts to turn knowledge into practical services.

– Design is above all a practical tool for changing society. This year’s award recipients demonstrate how design can strengthen people’s ability to understand, participate and take action, says Katja Soini, Chair of the award jury.

The award is worth €2,500.

Alex Fjällström receives the Wuorio Award for Thesis of the Year for a concept exploring accessible shared micro-mobility in a changing urban environment. His work focuses on accessibility, stability, simplicity, maintainability and repairability, and examines how mobility services can better serve diverse users.

The award is worth €1,000.

The awards were selected by an interdisciplinary jury chaired by Katja Soini. The jury members were designer and glass artist Katriina Nuutinen, Chair of the Boards of Technology Industries of Finland and Vaisala Ville Voipio, fashion designer and Professor of Practice Ervin Latimer and Päivi Kivikytö-Reponen, Head of the Industrial Circular Economy Research Team at VTT.

The Design Advocate Award, part of the Ornamo Award programme, will be presented in early 2027.

The article’s feature image shows Ornamo Chair Katja Soini, industrial designer Alex Fjällström and Ornamo CEO Salla Heinänen. Photo: Joona Möttö.