The visual look of Helsinki’s World Design Capital year in 2012 will be designed by design consultancy Kokoro & Moi. The message is actionable: the theme of ”Open Helsinki” encourages you to play catch both figuratively and in practice.
Text Simo Vassinen
Photos Juuso Noronkoski
Finnish designers could lead the way to more design-oriented Christmas. What would new Finnish Christmas approach look like?
Text Anni Puolakka & Jenna Sutela
Illustration Santtu Mustonen
Delay Trees melts together shoegazing walls, melancholy dream pop, cool art rock and 90s indie sounds.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Islaja’s fifth album is still no sing-along album; the dreamy music requires concentration, but when you dive into it, you easily lose track of your surroundings.
Text Teemu Fiilin
With his second album, Raappana shows off his pleasant sound, combining modern singjay and traditional reggae vocals.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Architect Tuomas Toivonen has understood that designing houses and making house music aren’t all that different.
Text Teemu Fiilin
2OR+BYYAT – Nómad – Urban a – Chef & Sommelier – French Films – Le Futur Pompiste – Column: Maryam Razavi – Vassinen: Shitty thing – Portfolio: Dusty – Towards WDC 2012: EDII – Helsinki Calendar – New albums – New movies – The best shops, restaurants and bars in Helsinki
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Design agency TSTO combines illustrative artistic expession with the practical mindset of graphic design.
Text Maiju Malk
Photos Kaarle Hurtig
”I have hundreds of songs in the drawer, but right now I have at least three or four really good tracks that I want to publish post haste. The new material will be deeper and more techno than my previous club tracks”, says music producer Ercola.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Mikko Ryhänen
Musuta Ltd. burst into design-oriented minds in June 2010, when they won the coveted Gold Lion award at Cannes International Advertising Festival.
Text Heini Lehtinen
For a long time, Finns have been said to share with the Japanese an affection with simple shapes and basic colors. Scandinavian design has been popular in Japan for over a decade, and its popularity doesn’t seem to be fading. The Hirameki project, set for launch in Tokyo in October, aims to keep it that way.
Text Heini Lehtinen
Photos Anders Westerholm
Skanno kicked off the new decade by launching a concept store, designed by Anna Katriina Tilli, in downtown Helsinki. At the same time, the company is heading into the international furniture market with their own collection.
Text Heini Lehtinen
Photos Juuso Noronkoski
By Kivi Sotamaa
Just like the electric guitar and Jimi Hendrix created a new psychedelic sound in the 1960s, computers and the manufacturing robots they control are now enabling the discovery of new forms of expression in architecture and design for the third millennium.
Photos Juuso Noronkoski
In London’s temporary restaurant Hel Yes! you can enjoy traditional Finnish food from a recycled plate beneath trembling aspens from 16 September–3 October 2010.
Text Ville Aalto
Illustration Klaus Haapaniemi
Photos Adam Laycock
Media art festival Media Façades, coming to Finland for the first time, plays with media interfaces. Among other things, the festival will bring interactive media pieces and projections to Helsinki nights.
Text Petteri Kainulainen
Images Media Façades / m-cult
Hub Helsinki organized a World Design Capital 2012 brainstorming day in Helsinki at the end of May. During Helsinki Design Week, it is exploring urban gardens and communal construction. What Hub Helsinki?
Text Heini Lehtinen
Photos Tanja Korvenmaa
The terms ‘design’ or ‘the world of design’ bring us anguish, but it’s hard to see a way out besides creating your own sphere within the terms. What is it about design that makes us sick?
Text Anni Puolakka & Jenna Sutela
Illustration Rami Niemi
SlowHill relies on the same sound as on their previous albums: meditative woodwinds, tranquil trip hop beats, gentle keyboard harmonies and jazzy guitars.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Kap Kap gets most of its influences from 1960s–1970s hypnotic krautrock, but the final product contains also traces of Ennio Morricone’s epic movie themes, Giorgio Moroder’s synth sounds and Primal Scream rock mysticism.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Named after the rapper-singer-producer-songwriter Superjanne’s native Helsinki district, Munkkisaari is a down-to-earth record that doesn’t beat around the bush.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Shine 2009 combines the spirit of Gothenburg’s balearic pop bands like with the wild years of Ibiza and the Madchester mania.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Stupido Shop is often seen as a near-legendary indie store. Stupido orders in almost everything that’s released in Finland, which is practically well over a hundred titles a week.
Text Petteri Kainulainen
Photos Vesa Mäkinen
Helsinki’s minimal sounds are unique, but this uniqueness sometimes leaves you yearning for more variety, volume and spontaneity. Here we take the opportunity to think about how to design a more interesting Helsinki from the sonic point of view.
Text Anni Puolakka & Jenna Sutela
Illustration Nene Tsuboi
Indie is the new mainstream, and electro is the new dance. In the early 2000s masses of artists fled to Barcelona. Now Berlin has become the unofficial second home of Finnish musicians.
Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Johannes Ekholm
“Choosing typography and illustrations for a poster is kind of similar to piecing together drum sounds and beats and throwing in some samples.”
Text Heini Lehtinen
Clear 
20X0 – A Journey into the Future
8. October 2011
Heureka – The Finnish Science Centre
Seven Connections – Finnish Architecture Abroad
11. January 2012
Museum of Finnish Architecture
Yellow City – Illustrated Stories from Helsinki
16. January 2012
All around the city
20. January 2012
Kiasma – Museum of Contemporary Art
DesignWorld – Designing the New World
27. January 2012
Design Museum
Bi-monthly magazine about Helsinki. In Finnish and in English.
