Mariana Salgado and Alex Fjällström are the 2026 Ornamo Award winners

The Design Forerunner Award goes to service designer Mariana Salgado, who brings design into climate research and builds people’s participation in the sustainability transition. The prize is 2, 500 €.  

This year, the award jury highlighted design’s ability to strengthen people’s participation and active agency. According to Katja Soini, Chair of the Jury, this is particularly important right now. 

“Design is above all a practical tool for changing society. This year’s award recipients show that design can strengthen people’s opportunities to understand, participate and take action. People’s active participation and commitment are important both for an equal society and for the sustainability transition,” says Soini. 

Mariana Salgado makes complex information understandable and supports people’s commitment to climate action 

The Design Forerunner Award recipient, service designer Mariana Salgado, works at the European research infrastructure ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System), which measures greenhouse gases and produces open data. Salgado brings design into the development of the research infrastructure and helps make complex research data understandable and usable in climate action and decision-making. 

For Salgado, design is above all a way of thinking. Together with researchers and other experts, she develops services that turn research data into practical tools. Design can also

lower the threshold for participating in change and help people adopt new, more sustainable ways of working and acting. 

“My job is to make sure the knowledge researchers produce is actually usable by others. Services create real added value when they help people understand environmental problems or open the door to new research,” Salgado says. 

In addition, her international advocacy work and the Diseño y Diáspora podcast spread design expertise across professional boundaries and strengthen the role of design in social change. 

Jury’s citation Ornamo Award ‘26: Design Forerunner 

Service designer Mariana Salgado receives the award in recognition of her exceptionally impactful and wide-ranging work to advance social and ecological sustainability. She works at the ICOS research infrastructure, which measures greenhouse gases and produces open data to support decision-making. Salgado designs services that make research data understandable and participatory. 

Of particular merit is Salgado’s work to advance people’s participation and commitment in the sustainability transition: sustainable ways of working and acting emerge when people can participate in change and feel that it belongs to them. The jury also valued Salgado’s international advocacy work and the Diseño y Diáspora podcast, which strengthen the role of design as a tool for social change. 

Ornamo Award 26: Wuorio Award – Thesis of the Year 

An outstanding design thesis has also been recognised today. The Wuorio Award for Thesis of the Year goes to Alex Fjällström, whose thesis was selected by the Institute of Design and Fine Arts at LAB University of Applied Sciences. The thesis presents a shared micro-mobility vehicle designed for a changing urban environment of the future. 

Particular attention in the concept has been paid to accessibility, as well as the vehicle’s stability, simplicity, maintainability and repairability. The thesis therefore examines micro-mobility from the perspectives of both users and a sustainable urban environment. 

Ornamo presents the award to industrial designer Alex Fjällström for a thesis that rethinks accessible mobility. Shared Micro-Mobility in a Changing Urban Environment – A Concept for an Accessible Micro-Mobility Vehicle  examines how rapidly growing mobility services can be developed with greater consideration for different users. The thesis highlights the importance of design in developing sustainable, accessible and equal services. 

The prize is 1, 000 €. 

Jury  The awards were selected by a multidisciplinary jury chaired by Katja Soini, Chair of the Board of Ornamo (AFRY). The jury members are designer and glass artist Katriina Nuutinen, Chair of the Board Ville Voipio (Technology Industries of Finland & Vaisala), fashion designer & Professor of Practice Ervin Latimer (Aalto University), and Head of Industrial Circular Economy Research Team Päivi Kivikytö-Reponen (VTT Technical Research