Kiasma Museum of Modern Art.
Design is everything that combines usability, form and idea.
A tour in Helsinki is easy on the eyes and food for thought for a design-oriented citizen. The glowing orange of a subway car, the stairs of the Cathedral, the cobblestones in the city centre and the vizor kiosks of Kallio district. Still, we don’t always remember to appreciate design in its wider meaning. It’s worth taking a look at not only the traditional places a tourist guides tells us to look, but elsewhere as well.
The sorting center of a post office, digital schedule screens at bus stops and kitchens’ drying cabinets are carefully considered insights of everyday design. It isn’t just simple aesthetics and little perks, it’s also everything that makes everyday life easier and refreshing. Usability, looks and usefulness – or hopefully something combining all of these.
The true legends of Finnish design were born after World War II into a society that neither threw anything away nor yearned for anything over-the-top. KAJ FRANCK, TIMO SARPANEVA and TAPIO WIRKKALA shaped a nation’s identity out of wood, metal, glass and porcelain. Even today, a glass that fits in your hand and works is an everyday luxury item. Something simple and ingenious can also be beautiful.
In addition to our successful heritage of architecture, glass industry and furniture design, people on many other fields are succeeding in combining usability, playfulness and aesthetics. This hasn’t gone unnoticed: some time ago fashion bible Vogue Italia had a fashion shoot amidst playground equipment designed by Rovaniemi-based company Lappset.
Accessibility and aesthetics
Design manager LAURA SARVILINNA has worked with top names of Finnish design in Finland and abroad. She thinks it’s important that design is seen as a vital part of all planning from products to services.
”Urban planning is probably the most advanced field of social design. On the other hand, service design benefits geriatric care, food service and planning of public spaces. It’s about what types of services you produce, what kinds of chains you have and what kinds of software and equipment you use. Accessibility is key,” she says.
”Design doesn’t have to interest everyone, but over here generations of people have grown up with good design and planning. The word design is often only attached to Alvar Aalto’s famous vase.”
Exporting Finnish design is a good way to promote the broader definition of the word. Last May’s New York Meatpacking District Design Week saw an exhibition called Playful: New Finnish Design. The exhibition presented a cross-section of everyday and festive life. As always, new architecture, lighting fixtures and graphic design were shown in Manhattan. Side by side stood also a cordless charging table (featuring a mobile, no less), an educational digital game for children and a partition wall made of metal. Next to a group of Marimekko parasols was also a Molok, a bubble-shaped garbage container familiar to Helsinki’s park-goers. Usable, thought-through and aesthetical.
Church, school and home
Helsinki’s election as World Design Capital 2012 has already inspired many unusual parties to hop aboard the design train. Kirkko & Kaupunki (Church & the City in English), the newspaper of the Parish Union of Helsinki, had an editorial about ecclesiastical design. The University Group of Lapland has pushed for wider understanding of design in its education. A project called Design for All promotes diversified service design processes for different groups in our society, from disabled people to the elderly to cultural minorities.
Design is more than just a pretty surface – it’s a way to face challenges, be they products, processes or services. Design is already nesting in every nook of the society. Year 2012 is just bringing it to daylight in all of its forms. At its best, a design capital can be a village-like community in which products, spaces and services all have a meaning, a story and a function. Whatever we design can be designed in the best way possible. The Aalto vase is a great example of design that reaches everybody in the society. What else do we want to touch and feel? †
Text Simo Vassinen Photo Image bank of the City of Helsinki / Comma Image
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Helsinki was elected World Design Capital 2012 in November 2009. A series of articles in We Are Helsinki will detail Helsinki’s journey towards the design year 2012. www.wdc2012helsinki.fi
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