Table of Contents
Formica Corporation announces the opening of the 2025 FORM Student Innovation Competition. Entries will be accepted now through March 7, 2025.
Now in its eighth year, this annual furniture design competition invites students studying architecture and interior design in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to share their inventiveness through original designs that feature Formica Brand products with this year's theme “Designing for Well-being.”
The rising understanding of neuroaesthetics, the field concerning how the aesthetics around us can impact our mental and physical health, is making an impact in interior design, and Formica Corporation has made this the focal point of the 2025 competition. “Designing for Well-being” will allow students to demonstrate how elements like color, sound and patterns can have a positive impact on one’s well-being. Students entering will provide a project statement and color rendering of their furniture design that includes at least three or more Formica Brand or FENIX products.
“This competition continues to grow each year — not just in the number of submissions but the sheer creativity we see from students,” said Meghan Howell, North American design and creative director at Formica Corporation. “While well-being is an evergreen idea, its importance has been increasingly emphasized by Gen Z and we’re excited to see how students can bring this mindset to furniture design.”
Each entrant will have the chance to win cash prizes and national recognition, including the opportunity to have their design showcased at NeoCon 2025, the leading design and event for commercial interiors. A distinguished panel of industry leaders will judge the students’ work, with winners announced in early May 2025.
The grand prizewinner will receive a $2,000 cash award and their design will be fabricated and displayed during NeoCon 2025 in Chicago. The second-place winner will be awarded $1,000 and the third-place winner will receive $500. The top three winners will also be invited to attend NeoCon as guests of Formica Corporation for the opportunity to network with industry professionals and gain exposure to the design community.
The annual FORM Student Innovation Competition continues to grow as more students across the U.S., Canada and Mexico submit their inventive and thought-provoking designs, with last year's competition seeing a 26 percent increase in entries from the previous year. The current iteration of FORM is inspired by a challenge Formica Corporation held in 2008, when the company invited design greats — including Jaime Velez, Zaha Hadid, Michael Graves, Bernard Tschumi and Massimo Vignelli, among others — to create works of art from Formica Brand products. Their designs, which ranged from domestic pieces to conceptual sculptures, were then exhibited at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.
Keeping the spirit alive from the original challenge, the 2025 FORM Student Innovation Competition invites the next generation of designers to express their creativity in these original furniture designs, showing attention to detail, inventive design and a unique point of view.
Competition submissions can be emailed to designcontest@formica.com. visit www.formica.com/studentcompetition for more information, including complete competition details, resources and rules.
