Fine woodworking from Finland

5 June 2023

Maker of the Year presented by Carbitool is open to makers all over the world. Visa Meisalmi is an award winning designer and carpenter from Finland. In 2021, he won an internationally acclaimed Red Dot Award in Product Design.

‘I have always had a rich and vivid imagination and I started to put that in the woodwork’, says Visa Meisalmi. ‘As a young boy, I loved to make wooden puzzles for my family. Since then I have kept that curious and innovative mindset, which is my secret as a wood designer. I have more than ten years of experience as a carpenter, and I have worked on building houses, saunas, theatre props, cabinetry, designing and creating furniture and smaller home items to name a few.’

‘My inspiration stems from the pure Scandinavian nature. When I see something fascinating in the nature, my mind starts creating new ideas and designs. Despite my ambitious ideas, I want my designs to be functional and simple, not forgetting the feasibility of manufacturing.’

Visa Meisalmi, Wood Cradle. Photo: Anette Sällylä and Visa Meisalmi

Many of Visa’s designs make use of Scandinavian wood-bending traditions, including the Wooden Cradle he entered in Maker of the Year. You can see Visa’s process in the video below.