Finnish Design - Finland - page 655

The website www.finnishdesign.com mostly sticks to the well-established names but it's a
good introduction. Design Forum Finland's webpage www.designforum.fi has useful links;
its awards are another good way to keep tabs on the scene.
The Classics
If the early 21st century is a new golden age for Finnish design, the original one was in the
1950s and 1960s. The freelance designers producing marvels in glass for Iittala, ceramics
for Arabia, cookware for Hackman and furniture for Artek won international recognition
and numerous prestigious awards, particularly at the Triennale di Milano shows. Though
times were still tough after the war, and the country was struggling to house refugees from
occupied Karelia, the successes of these firms, together with the Helsinki Olympic Games
of 1952, helped put a still-young nation on the map and build confidence and national
pride, which had been weakened after the gruelling battles with Russia and Germany.
The story of the Iittala glass company could be a metaphor for the story of Finnish
design. Still producing to models imported from Sweden in the early 20th century, the
company began to explore more home-grown options. Glass design competitions were an
outward-looking source of ideas: from one of these came Alvar Aalto's famous Iittala
vase, which he described as 'an Eskimo woman's leather trousers'. Then two giants of
postwar design, Tapio Wirkkala (1915-85) and Timo Sarpaneva (1926-2006), began to
explore textures and forms gleaned from Finnish lakescapes. Coloured glass fell from use
and the classic Iittala ranges were born, with sand-scouring creating the appearance of cut
ice, and Wirkkala's impossibly fluid forms seemingly melting away. The opaque look,
which resembled ceramics, was a later creation as a new generation took to the field. Harri
Koskinen (b 1970) and Annaleena Hakatie (b 1965) were among the leading lights, though
the company has never been afraid to commission foreign designers. Iittala is today under
the same ownership as Hackman, the long-established cutlery and cookware producers,
and Arabia, who roughly paralleled Iittala's glassware trajectory with ceramics.
Clothing has been another area of success. Finland, unlike its Nordic neighbours, has
tended to beat its own fashion path. It's traditionally been a place where teenagers can
wear a jumper knitted by granny to school, and though new and exciting ideas are con-
stantly created here, they tend to be built on solid, traditional foundations.