The Icelandic designer Brynjar Sigurðarson (*1986) was awarded with the Swiss Design Award 2015, category products and objects. The jury was convinced by his stringent analysis of found and manufactured objects that he gathered during his field study in a fishing village in the northeast of Iceland. These objects were presented in an atmospheric display, together with a film, in the exhibition Swiss Design Awards.

A few months have passed and we were curious what Brynjar is currently working on and how his prize money of 25,000 CHF was used …

“The award gave me the recognition to keep on doing what I am doing, and to trust my judgement. You keep on trying to make your passion a practice, and especially in your early career it’s really not easy to make a living out of it. It’s tough, and maybe especially if you don’t focus on making things that will sell well from the beginning. In that way the Swiss Design Award is amazing as it helps you so much, gives you such a precious time to do your own stuff instead of doing stuff for others or to be running after paid projects etc.

The prize gave me a certain freedom, time and budget to see what I really want to do. It really made me think of how I want the studio to be. I want to do more artistic projects and balance that with starting a production of my own things, sort of a small edition by Studio Brynjar and Veronika, with whom I started working a while ago. Here a few objects that are mostly made by ourselves at the studio.

In addition, we are working on a very exciting project as a part of a residecy at the Fondation Galeries Lafayette. It will be performance related, and we will be working with instrument makers in order to make new instruments.”

Brynjar Sigurðarson (*1986) received a master’s degree in product design from ECAL, Lausanne (2011), following a bachelor degree from The Iceland Academy of the Arts, Reykjavík, Iceland. His work is linked to storytelling and narratives. He uses various mediums such as furniture, drawings, photography, video and sound. In 2011 Brynjar established his studio in Lausanne. He is currently living and working between Lausanne, Berlin, Paris and Iceland.

Recognition, (economic) freedom and exciting projects. If this sounds like something you are looking for, you have one week left to apply for the  Swiss Design Awards 2016: www.gate.bak.admin.ch